Haibane Renmei: C O R P O R A T I O N
by ArkNorth
Summary: Chapter Thirteen - Sleepless in Glie - As the debate rages between the basement and the attic over the Holy Sites, their arguments start to cause the world of the Humans to react, with terrible results for the residents of Old Home. NOTE-SERIES REMASTERED
1. Apogee

**.**

**2 0 1 1 - R E V I S I O N**

**-Θ-**

**A Note from the author about this Remastering – **

When I started this story back in 2004, all I originally had to go by was the anime, and specifically, the booklet that came with the first DVD from Pioneer/Geneon. Well, here it is, 2011 (at the time of this revision), and I find, by looking over the later chapters, I find that certain ideas tend to counter some of the earlier ones, and characters act a bit differently now that some of their backgrounds have been hammered out. So I've cleaned up some of the conflicting issues that were brought up over this time. Mind you, there was always one problem that has bothered me that will now be brutally drawn out and repaired – an issue that seemed to even hamper some of the plot to the actual anime as well – JUST WHERE THE HECK IS EVERYTHING IN GURI/GLIE? Well, now that I've found a copy of the map that appears in The Haibane Lifestyle Diary, that should help things out – hence, the stories will be rebuilt to match up with this new layout. For example, I always thought that the Main Gate was in the Eastern Wall – no, it's pretty much DUE NORTH.

Will this cause problems? Oh, you bet. I've got to figure out how to move plots about a bit. As an example, I always thought that you would pass by Abandoned Factory to the north of the center of town as you headed for the Renmei Temple – no such luck kiddos! The Factory is to the east of town, while the Temple is a bit southwest! Talk about being in two opposite directions!

Of course, this also opens up a great deal of creative changes as well – you see there never was a mention of a Scar's Village, or just where it would have been anyway! Such is the way of ABe!

So, to those who have read these stories before, you might want to try them again, for old time's sake. Locations will have shifted, and I've fleshed out some scenes to add to their drama, humor, or just plain sense.

Oh, and for those who have asked me about the little blurb before the first few stories' titles about "Original FFN Intro," originally when I was posting these chapters, I posted them as individual stories, which, in a chapter-based system, is frowned upon. Hence, the first few chapters were deleted and reposted in the format you're looking at right now.

Have fun folks!

R. A. Stott - ArkNorth – June 2011

* * *

_Original FFN Intro:_

_Sins are the burden one must bear through life - but what if your sins are so great that you must repent on them forever? A man enters Glie, but not through the Eastern Gate. (ED: Now recognized as the Northern Gate.)_

Original FFN #1936611

First published 6/28/2004

For M'Lady Shadowcat

**H A I B A N E - R E N M E I :**

**C O R P O R A T I O N**

Chapter One

**APOGEE**

By R. A. Stott

_There was a day once that man attempted to harness the power of God._

_This angered God, and he sent forth his angels to stop the foolhardy man from doing what only he was suppose to be able to do._

_But man was a tricky and quick child, and did what God did not want him to do._

_Man created God's Power._

* * *

The young Haibane stood and watched the man as he sat down outside the door he had just come out of. He was an elderly fellow and seemed out of breath. Sweat poured from his forehead which struck the boy as odd since the early spring air was quite crisp that day.

"Shota, what did I say about playing back there?" a voice called to the child. "That part of the factory is off limits!"

The boy looked at the man, then back at the person who had called him. "But Hyohko, someone just came out of the door!"

A person came to a running stop at the top of the stairs beside the boy. The old man could see this person was breathing hard, as if they had just been frightened by what they were told. The silhouette was covered in a fog of air being blown out in hard pants.

"Shota…" Hyohko barked at the boy. "Shota get back here now!" He glared down at the stranger. "Why are you here? Why did you come from that door?" he now addressed him. "Aren't you supposed to come in through the wall gate?"

The man laughed. "The wall gate?" he muttered. "I don't get such privileges."

* * *

_Man's idea that they could control God's Power was quickly put to the test. As the angels arrived to put a stop to his folly, the created Power he had made erupted in a fountain of destruction that took on the first wave of God's servants and vanquished them to the abyss. The second and third wave of angels attempted to hold back the burgeoning overflow of energy by using their father's Powers in direct contact with the synthesized Power._

_The energies did manage to cancel each other out, but only just. And some of God's children, if touched by the fake Power of man's creation, seemed to be stripped from the skies and launched downwards into the gates of hell._

_Man stood aghast at what he had done, having thought that if such a run-away had occurred, all would be lost. But seeing that the overflow was being held in check, man attempted to shut down the outward rush of Power._

* * *

The man stood up and brushed himself off. He took a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped his brow.

"I must remember to ask for a raise for this work," he mumbled. He shook his wrist and looked at his watch. "Hey kid," he addressed to Hyohko. "What time is it locally?"

The tall boy stepped back with the younger child. "I'm… I'm not supposed to talk to you! You're a Toga, aren't you?"

The man adjusted his hat. "Do I look like a Toga? Do I have my face bound up like a mummy?" he asked. "As a Haibane, you should know better."

Hyohko's hat and backpack conveniently covered the most noticeable parts of a Haibane – his wings and halo. He took two steps back, turned and ran off with Shota in tow.

"Was it something I said?" the man asked the long departed boys. He snorted and looked around the building he was in. "We didn't bother to clean this part up much, did we?" he mumbled to himself. He picked up a gym bag he had and found a small smoldering burn on the side of it that he quickly swatted out with his hand. He stepped outside the room he had entered through and snatched up a handful of snow to rub across the singed section.

He examined the luggage. The letters TWA, once red and white, were now brown and gray.

"Damn it, I liked this bag too…" he groused as he headed for the front gate.

He saw the hole in the fence off to his right. He would have to get down low to make it through that – no way. He pulled a set of keys from his pocket and examined the padlocked gate.

"HEY!" a young girl's voice yelled at him. "What are you doing there?"

The man looked back. A girl about the age that the older boy had been was glaring at him. Her wings gave a flap of distrust and her halo seemed to glow a bit brighter than the others who were looking on in the bright daylight.

He found the right key. "I am on an errand, dear," he told her as he popped the lock on the gate. When he looked back, she now had the same shocked look on her face the boy had earlier.

"You… you opened the gate!" she stammered. "Hyohko was right! You're not Toga… you're not even a Communicator… you're… you're the… What are you doing here at Abandoned Factory?"

He smiled as he swung the gate open. "Who ever said that this facility was ever abandoned?"

* * *

_God saw that man, even in his haste, was attempting to help. His children were loosing the fight against this artificially produced Power and he sent down a divine light of guidance to the two groups – cooperation was the only way to prevent total annihilation of all._

_Man saw the light and understood what to do. Man ejected the core to his Power into space following the light with the hopes that they would escape the deathblow it would create when it lost final control._

_The eruption took place away from the plane of the world, but the energy was drawn back by the Source of the Power. Man died and was reborn in an instant._

_The Power shattered, scattering to seven locations around his old world. Man, in turn, was put into these places, leaving little else of his existence outside these holy sites of walls and serenity._

_But God saw a more troubling issue. Angels he had sent to defend his powers, having been defiled by the false Power of Man, were also falling into these worlds. They would take root there, deprived of their ethereal powers, unable to escape._

_This angered God, and he looked down on man._

* * *

The man opened a cell phone and pressed a code. Pushing a button on its side, he made it chirp.

"Glie – arrival complete. Entering the town at O-two-hundred-thirty hours GMT," he said to the device. He nodded to the unheard voice that responded. "Understood. I'll return within five hours GMT. Out." He slapped the phone shut, closed, but did not lock the gate, and started for town.

Hyohko ran up to the petrified girl as she watched the old man make his way down the road. "Midori, is it true?" he asked her. "Is he…"

"…Corporation," was all she said. They stood and watched him head down the hill towards the town center.

"I'm sorry sir," the haloed-woman at the door said as he attempted to enter. "The library closes at three."

The man grumbled. "Just a moment," he said as he rummaged through his jacket. He pulled out a billfold wallet that he snapped open revealing a badge with what looked like a leaf on it. It had a number running across its center. "I need to see the chief librarian," he said.

"He has a what, Nemu?" Sumika asked.

Nemu noticed the odd look her friend was giving her and she shook. Something wasn't right about this stranger. She felt it in her wings.

"A badge of some sorts, Sumika," she said. "It had a leaf and words across it and a series of numbers…"

The librarian looked at the door to her office at the man standing outside it. She held her breath.

"Ptolemy!" she whispered.

He tipped his hat to her. "It's that time again… time to put things into balance. Can we start?"

* * *

_Man sat before God, bereaved that the catastrophic event had now unraveled the bonds of Heaven and Earth. He sat cowered to the all-mighty awaiting his punishment._

_God watch the aftermath of the event. Souls meant to ascend were dropping back to the ground, pulled by the magnetic draw of the seven zones on the Mother Earth. God's anger grew as he saw that his children were now being held in bondage to a world they were supposed to vacate after their trials of life there. Wrath lay ahead for man._

_"Nay," a voice from below said, "for I am in the same hindrance as thee."_

_Lucifer stood before God. It was he that noted that the path of souls now diverged to the seven sites on the Mother Earth. Ascending or falling now had weigh-stations. The Lord of Hell also made note that not all was Man's fault._

_God stood before man and considered this new revelation. He then laid down his decree – Man shall protect his children, caring for them as payment for his sins – until the day shall come for them to take flight once again. Those that would join them henceforth would be judged by their time within these stations._

_Lucifer smiled and settled back into the fires of Hades again as the judgment on man had been made._

* * *

"Damn injectors are getting out of alignment again," Ptolemy said as he was guided to the display room with the petrified books.

"I don't understand," Nemu said. "No one has been able to decipher these books. What are they?"

Ptolemy removed a pad-like device from his bag and started keying in a code on a keyboard that appeared on its surface. He then waved the back of it over the exposed text on the first book. The rock hard surface softened and the pages opened freely. Nemu gasped at seeing them free at last.

"You've got to tell those 'scholars' you have here to stop playing with these things," Ptolemy stated. "If they break any more of these front pages, we'll be in real trouble."

Nemu's puzzled expression caught his attention. He laughed.

"I'm sorry," he said. "You probably have no idea what these are for."

Nemu swallowed and looked at the book that Ptolemy was leafing through. "No… we've been trying to decipher it for some time…"

Ptolemy added another laugh. "Good luck to you then, especially since those front pages aren't letters. They're scanning information…" He scanned a second page, then a third before closing the pages back to the way they had been. He then waved the pad over it once again, and the book returned to stone.

"How did you do that?" Nemu asked astonished by the trick played on the text.

"You'd be surprised what you can do with God's Power," Ptolemy noted under his breath. He plugged the scanner into his phone and keyed up the device again. He held it up and waited as they beeped a few times. He then placed the phone to his ear.

"Reception okay?" he asked and nodded. "Okay, I need to check on the saints now. - Understood. - Do we need a scan reading there as well? - Very well. - I'll need to talk to that old rascal Washi then. - Okay… Pull the yolk on the main stage and be ready for interface again on my next call. - Right. - Upper setting five through twelve I think. - Right…"

Nemu stood with a perplexed look on her face as Ptolemy finished his phone call and slapped his cell phone shut. He looked around as if he had just realized he was in a library.

"Thank you," he told her as he placed his beat up hat back on. "I am finished here. I need to go to the Temple now."

* * *

_Man looked over what he had wrought. The creation of God's Power and the subsequent over blast had laid waste the lands of Mother Earth. None stood, save that which was preserved within the Holy Sites. This made both Man and God sad. The children of the Father had been decimated in a thoughtless act of science, save for those within the seven circles of hope._

_Thus it was decreed that the seven would be removed from time and space and the world restored. God moved the seven holy circles above the land and swept it clean of the devastation that had befallen it. Forty days it took._

_On the forty-first day, those who had been misplaced by the event were returned to the lands and cities that had been placed upon the ruins of the past, their minds cleansed of the horror that had been inflicted upon them._

_Finally, the seven Holy Sites were once again placed upon the world, though evenly scattered across the Earth so as to lessen the burden upon one area alone. It was then made clear that Man would be responsible for the care and upkeep of these walled lands and to those that they would bear. Those within would remain so, charged with the protection of the falling souls that would take root there. There would be those on the outside as well who were to do the same, as there would be some who would dare attempt to breech the walls to learn their secrets. God could see through Lucifer's guile. Between the two would be those who created these places, charged with managing them all._

_And so it has been…_

* * *

Ptolemy stood before the doorway of the temple and tapped on a long bell with the end of a pen he carried. As he slipped it back into his shirt pocket, four men with staffs surrounded him.

_"Gentlemen,"_ he signed with his fingers, _"it is time for the realignment."_

He heard a slight tinkle of a bell to his right. He looked over his shoulder to see a young Haibane girl with communication bells on her wings and in her hands. He tipped his hat to her and returned to the men surrounding him.

They stood with their staffs pointed at his head. He grunted.

_"Are you looking to get fired?"_ he signed. _"I want Com-One, and I want him here, NOW!"_

The Haibane jumped back. She had never seen anyone sign with such a gesture before. Shouting with your hands must be an art.

"Don't worry kid," Ptolemy said over to her in a low rumbling tone from the corner of his mouth. "These guys are just being stubborn."

He reached into his jacket and pulled out his badge again. The first guard that saw it fell to his knees. The second followed suit. The third stepped back slightly then dashed off towards the Communicator's Office. The forth though remained steadfast with his staff pointed at Ptolemy's head.

_"Put the staff down, or I'll start TALKING to you,"_ he signed, almost slapping the rod in the process. The last guard reluctantly did as he was told as his fellow Toga was yanking on his skirt while prostrating himself.

Something beeped in Ptolemy's pocket. He pulled his phone out and popped it open.

"Yes?" he loudly asked the communications unit, which surprised those around him. "Inbound? - How many? - Two? - Can the system handle it? - Are you sure? - Okay, I'll get the final data as quickly as I can, but keep those injectors cool until I do. - Right. - Location?"

There was a moment of silence.

"Oh, that's not good," he continued. "Apogee must have been off on that one. - Is there a chance to redirect? - Umm, I thought so. - Where is it going to plant? - Oh god, that's out in the boonies! - That's almost the southern wall! - Okay, when? - Then I probably will have to stay longer then. - Right. - We'll see. - The saints come first. - That's correct. - The saints. - No, the saints. - Yes. - Yes, that's right. - Love you too…"

He slapped the phone shut and looked at those around him. The three guards looked as if they were going to be ill from hearing all the words he had just spoken aloud. The girl just stood in awe of the stranger who would dare do such a thing at the temple.

"Are you from Old Home?" Ptolemy asked the girl.

She stepped back, coughing slightly at the shock of suddenly being asked such a question. "Umm, err, yes?" she meekly answered.

"If you're not busy, could you do an errand for me then?" the man asked in a kind way that wasn't like the way he had talked to the others, even if it had been with his hands. "A newborn is on the way, but it is way off course."

The girl looked startled at the man. "But… but we just had a pair of twins just the other week! They haven't even hatched yet!" she cried.

Ptolemy looked at a small notebook he pulled from his jacket. "Yes, it's become quite busy around here suddenly – probably because of the injector failure…"

"What did you mean by way off course?" the girl asked.

Ptolemy looked at the child and smiled. "What is your name dear?" he asked.

"Hi… Hikari sir," she said. "I'm here to pick up Rakka and the halo mold…"

Ptolemy almost burst out laughing. He leaned over and whispered "No making pancakes with it again, you hear?"

Hikari jumped and turned scarlet. How did this man know that?

"To answer your question, we are tracking an inbound Haibane, but it's heading to an unguided landing spot," he said as he stood up. "It will plant itself somewhere between the dry well and the wall in about a day and a half. For its protection, I suggest that you inform the others at Old Home to watch the skies carefully around that time to find it. We wouldn't want some stray critter eating the seedling, now would we?"

"N-no sir… What about the other one?" she hardly managed to ask.

"Huh, it's okay," he said as he looked at the temple. "It's landing at the factory, so it will be cared for."

Hikari tried to catch her breath. "But… but how do you know these things?"

"Because he is from The Corporation," the deep voice of the Communicator said, "and they see all before even the Renmei."

Ptolemy shook his head. "Speaking aloud again? Didn't we have this discussion the last time?"

The Communicator laughed. "I sometimes find it easier to chat with the children – my hearing isn't what it used to be, and my eyesight needs adjusting."

Ptolemy looked closely at the mask on the Communicator's face. "The mono-eye is probably in the same shape as our injectors… want me to have the guys work on it?"

The Communicator nodded. "It would be appreciated," he said, then turned towards Hikari. "You would best be heading back with the news child. Rakka will not be with you tonight."

Hikari started to answer with the bells until she realized she had been addressed directly. "Umm, she won't?"

"No," the Communicator said. "She will be needed to guide my brother through the canal." He turned and walked Ptolemy towards the Temple.

"Living out of time is the pits, you know?" Hikari heard the stranger joke as he scratched his head. "Janice is about to throttle me, I'm sure of it!"

* * *

_And so it was found that those souls of the angels first sent to stop man were buried within the walls of the seven Holy Sites. Special care would be needed for these, as they were guardians of the lands that held them. But, because of their bonds, they became easy prey for the demons from below. Their powers stripped, Lucifer saw fit to send his leaches to attempt to ascertain and corrupt these imprisoned angels._

_Man saw the growth on these monuments and constructed a path below them to stop the onslaught. Holy water was filled and blessed so as to prevent the leaches from massing unmercifully on those unable to defend themselves._

_Man then made sure that the sacrifice these angels had made did not go unheralded. Regular care and upkeep of their resting places was kept as to keep the lesser demons from encroaching further._

_And so it has been._

* * *

Rakka looked over the elderly man with the Communicator with a worried expression. She had just come up from the canal having finished her daily chores – now she had to take this stranger down to the raft again.

Ptolemy also looked at the girl with a perplexed expression. "That's one of our radiation suits, right?" he asked Washi, who was standing beside him. "It's been so long that I've forgotten."

"Radia…?" Rakka tried to say. "A what?"

"Modified," the Communicator said. "After all, she is a Haibane."

Ptolemy bent down and examined Rakka closely. "Wouldn't she be better protected with a full face shield?" he asked as she leaned back on her heels.

There were a few moments of discussion over the protection of the Haibane when in the lower levels that confused Rakka. But she soon found herself guiding the two of them down the long stairs to her round raft.

"Ah, I forgot about that Six Flags thing," Ptolemy grunted as he saw it bobbing at its mooring station.

"I will leave you two then," the Communicator said. "Rakka, please take him where he wishes."

"Err… yes sir," she said as the stranger climbed aboard her raft. She found it odd that the man wasn't wearing the same garments she was – the Communicator had warned her that no one was to go down into the canal area without one. She sighed and pushed off.

The skiff slowly moved down the canal in silence, save the occasional dropping of water and the slight hum coming from the illuminated plaques along the walls. Rakka could not get the feeling out of her head that this man was looking at her from time to time – not in a threatening way, but… almost as if he were examining her. She shook the thought off and continued to punt them down stream.

"So, you're the New Feather from last year," Ptolemy finally broke the silence with, which made her flinch. He had been busy tinkering with a device he had pulled from his gym bag for a few minutes. "Rakka isn't it?"

"Er, yes sir," she nervously replied. "May I ask why we are here?"

"Um… I guess I could say I'm here to hopefully right a wrong," he said as he rubbed his neck and stretched. "I've got some saints to look after."

Rakka looked about. "Saints?"

* * *

_Years passed. Man continued to work to set the angels free of their bonds. As time moved on, man created ways to prevent the plantings and limit their stay by ways of a shield. Thus many of the souls destined to head out on their sacred journeys, be it hell or heaven, would pass on unobstructed._

_It was determined that when a soul was released from its bonds, it launches from the Earthly plane and must achieve escape velocity or the gravity would draw it back to the seven sites. Research found that the soul would most likely escape to their destinations as long as the body-vessel followed a natural course, and velocity was at its maximum._

_But, in cases when something obstructed the path the soul needed to take, escape would not occur. Man set up a center of reporting on these souls that reached an apogee._

_An Apogee Report meant that a new plant would soon sprout in one of the seven sites. Local controllers would then attempt to guide the fallen spirits to a location within the holy sites that would be the temporary homes of these pre-angels. In the early days of the zones, angels fell to any spot and sprouted where they may. The controller system meant that the angels would be concentrated within sections of the Holy Sites. Accuracy though, once the angel was within the shield, could not be guaranteed._

_The reasons for their strange arrival in the holy sites is still unknown – first a plant, then a cocoon as if an insect but surrounded in fluid like a fish - then finally as a pre-angel human – it is said that this was just some of God's handiwork. Others have guessed that these represent the many species in the world, many of whom ceased existence with the cataclysm that befouled the world._

_And so it has been._

* * *

"Chilly down here," Ptolemy said as they slipped up to a large tag he asked to be brought to. He stepped off the raft and held it until Rakka tied it up.

"Sir?" she asked as she watched him look over the tag. "The Communicator told me that I should never come down here without one of these robes on, or anyone else for that matter…"

He nodded as he started to scan the plaque. "That is correct," he replied while looking over his glasses at his device.

"Umm… but shouldn't you be, you know…" She blushed and looked down. "I'm sorry… I'm being out of place, aren't I?"

"Not at all," Ptolemy said as he looked closely at a light leaf that was peeling away from the wall. "You're simply showing concern for others. As for the suit, I don't need one. The radiation down here can not harm me." He looked over at her then back at the leaf fragment.

"Pardon me," he said as he suddenly was waving the device he carried over Rakka's head, then back at the wall. "Humm… Twenty percent reduction on the upper theta waves. That's actually good…"

"Good?" Rakka asked.

"Umm… the demons aren't getting at the saints as much now." He pulled a small cartridge from his pocket and added it to the device and gave the wall another sweeping scan. The unit beeped once and he removed the square piece then shook it hard. Rakka just stared as he held it up looking for something to back light it. He finally held it close to a cluster of the illuminated leaves on the wall. He shook his head and looked about for his bag. Rakka found a large flashlight being handed to her.

"Hold this up," he told her as he examined the cube against the light.

"Typical," he grumbled. "Just as the injectors go on the fritz, these guys finally get to a level that we just might be able to get them out of here…"

"Pardon?" Rakka asked.

Ptolemy placed his bare hand against the tag and smiled. "Inside these are angels, Rakka dear," he told her. "You see, these are the original Haibane."

Rakka's eye flew wide. She stared at the tags she had been busy tending. "The first Haibane?"

Ptolemy stroked the plate. "Umm, we call them the saints. The first priority of The Corporation is to free the saints. It looks like it might be soon."

Rakka looked down the tunnel behind her towards the wall on the far ledge. "Does that mean Kuu is a saint?"

She turned back to see Ptolemy with a puzzled look on his face. "Kuu? You mean the Haibane that took flight last year?"

Rakka nodded. "I know I've heard her voice from down there," she said as she pointed towards a tag across the way.

Ptolemy looked over to where she was pointing. "Really? Let's go see…"

* * *

_Dreams._

_If the dream is broken, the angel falls._

_The seven Holy Sites capture the broken dreams._

_Remembering their dreams is the sign that a fallen angel will soon be freed of the burden of this plane of existence, but only if the dream does not leave them sin-bound._

_Some can be quick, other can take years._

_To some, it never comes at all._

_To these come added burdens that they alone must deal with._

_A congregation of fallen angels lives to the west of the center of the town of Glie in an area near the wall that remains dark and foreboding. They remain in waiting for the day that they leave this peaceful world, their wings stripped, their halos rusted disks in the dirt. Some say they become Toga, others say that since flight has abandoned them, only the lord of flames and torment await them, and they must fall._

_All for the matter of a dream._

_It is said that some meet up with demons and leave through a secret doorway in the southern wall opposite that of the one on the northern side. God saw this and requested man to watch over these children as well. Thus was formed the Renmei, a guardian group that observes the Haibane, the Charcoal Feathers of this world, and those else who wither within these walls._

* * *

The raft bounced against the wall and Ptolemy stepped off. Rakka followed after him, quickly tying it up to the landing.

"Ah, I see what you mean," the man said as he examined the tag. "It looks like this saint is almost ready for flight."

"Really?" Rakka looked at the symbols and saw what she thought was Kuu's name in the stylized letters. She watched as Ptolemy placed his bare hand against the tag and closed his eyes.

"Oh yes, the contact is high with this one," he said. "She's giving off a strong contact signal."

Rakka nearly placed her own hand on the tag, but drew it back as she thought of what the Communicator had said about creatures that might be down there with them. She looked at the way Ptolemy was dressed and wondered whether he had been correct.

Ptolemy looked down at her and smiled. "You need not be afraid," he told her. "Would you like to see?"

Rakka stepped back, not sure of what he meant.

"Just place your hand on the back of mine," he told her. "But only your hand on mine - don't touch the plate without your glove on."

Rakka looked at his large hand on the tag and swallowed. She looked at her own hand and then at his. She reached up and almost touched it when he tapped it with his free hand.

"You have to take your glove off," he told her.

"Oh," she said. She slowly removed her right gauntlet and reached up to touch his hand. She felt a tingle through her fingers as they passed over the tag. It felt like static electricity that was playing off them.

"Get ready," Ptolemy said as she placed her hand on his.

Air blasted her face, and she felt her hair snap and wave in the wind. She opened her eyes to see clouds streaking by and the world far below her feet. She was free of the heavy robes and garments she had been wearing and was now in a familiar white soft cloth dress. She nearly lost her breath at the velocity she was doing. And unlike the last time she felt this air blast her face, she was climbing, not falling.

Something thumped on her back. And each time it did, she felt herself lift higher. She saw a glow over herself she had not seen before either. A glance up told her that her halo was shining bright. A look back told her that this was certainly not Glie she was over as her wings were now huge and white.

She found that they were capable of carrying her now, as they pushed the air away quite well. Each beat caused her to increase in speed, and the cloud banks were now far in the distance.

She heard someone laugh. She spun about to see where it had come from.

She recognized that laugh.

"KUU!" she cried. "KUUUU!"

Another cloud burst by her, and she saw a vast open land below of golden fields. She then saw a shadow over the grass and trees. It took her a moment of quick scanning of the area around her to see that she was not alone in the sky. Below her but ahead were angels. They were flying in a V-formation much like a flock of geese.

"KUU!" she yelled again as she dove for the line. But she burst through without touching a single one. She looked at her hands, having covered her face as she had barreled through them expecting a hard crash. She looked up and saw they had never seen or felt her – she had merely passed through them.

She didn't recognize anyone at first. She only saw them laughing and giggling with each other. But one laugh caught her attention. It was coming from a woman with long blond hair and beautiful blue eyes.

"Kuu!" Rakka exclaimed seeing the older girl who had been only a child when she had her day of flight. She had never thought of her in a long dress of silk and layers. The tomboy look she was used to had been completely shattered as they flew on.

"Hey!" another called. Rakka noticed that the person she was sure was Kuu turn and look at the far end of the line of angels. She smiled and waved to the woman at the trailing edge of the flight.

"Oh! Reki!" Rakka exclaimed. She had not changed much at all, though with her hair all flowing back, she seemed different. She seemed happy though, and to Rakka, that was all that mattered.

Something yanked on her. Rakka found herself being pulled involuntarily backwards away from the playful scene she had been witnessing. It was fast and nearly as breathtaking as the entry into this world as she found herself suddenly back in the tunnel. She blinked and saw Ptolemy looking down at her and smiling.

"Enjoy the trip?" he asked as he picked up the dropped glove Rakka had released during her flight. "We can thank the angel Bakuu for our tour."

"Bakuu?" Rakka repeated as she shook the cobwebs from her head and slid the gauntlet back into place. "I thought those letters on top spelled just Kuu…"

Ptolemy laughed and pointed to the right. "You read it this way, right to left – top to bottom. This crazy digi-glyphic system is worse than Japanese or Chinese in their use of Kanji-like letters." He pointed with his finger as he went along. "This long part here starts 'Here lies the Angel Ba…" He then drew his finger back to the top and the larger middle row of text. "…kuu of the Seventh Realm." He stood back and pondered the text as Rakka just stared at the man who could read them. "Huh… seventh… this is one old angel… good thing time doesn't mean anything to them…"

Rakka looked at the tag. "The Communicator said that the names change their meaning though…"

Ptolemy scanned the tag with his device and plugged it into his phone. "They do. All you have to do is change the inflection slightly, and Bakuu changes ever so slightly… I believe my brother would say that it becomes its true meaning…"

Rakka snapped up and looked Ptolemy in the face. "Brother? He is your brother?"

The catacomb rattled with the bellowing deep laugh of Ptolemy as he chortled. "Well, yes and no," he finally was able to reply. "He and I have been at this together for so long that we call ourselves brothers." His face then sank from laughter to almost sadness. "I have no idea what became of my brother, and he doesn't remember who he was before coming here, so…" he trailed off. He then shrugged his shoulders and put the scanner away. "The computers say there's a seventy-five percent chance that he may indeed be my brother, but only God knows… and he's not in a very talkative mood right now…" He walked over to the raft and climbed aboard. He looked back at Rakka and tipped his hat to her.

"Do me a favor, would you?" he asked.

"Umm, sir?" she replied.

"Don't tell anyone that I touched the tag, will you?" he asked with a slight smile. "There's nothing down here that could harm me, but there is that could harm you. Just knowing that something could have attacked you…"

"Th…There IS!" Rakka yelped.

"Not while you wear that suit there isn't, and certainly not while you're here with me," Ptolemy noted as he gestured her to climb aboard.

"But… I can't tell the others I saw Reki and Kuu?" Rakka asked almost pleading.

Ptolemy shook his head. "That may not have been Kuu you know. Besides, there is a good chance that they don't even remember their lives here. Even I'm not allowed to know that. This is only a weigh station, not a permanent memory. This is almost as peaceful a Purgatory one could get. Not bad for one created by man for you Haibane…"

The walk back towards Abandoned Factory was nearly somber. Ptolemy had spent many minutes talking on his phone and sending more data back to whomever was receiving it. Rakka had merely followed along out of wonderment since Old Home was in the opposite direction.

A late spring snow had started to fall bringing a silence to their walk.

"I want to thank you for your help," Ptolemy finally broke the solitude with. "I find it interesting that my brother would have a Haibane doing the work that you do. He must think very highly of you to do so."

Rakka shrugged and almost blushed. "I just collect the light leaves and clean the tags," she modestly said. She saw Ptolemy shaking his head.

"It takes skill, dear," he said. "A human could do your work as well, but only a Haibane can see when a light leaf is ready to be harvested properly."

He stopped in this tracks and looked back at the small girl and sighed.

"It also means that you will be here for a long time," he quietly said. "The Communicator would not have given such a job to a Haibane if he did not know this to be true. Your day of flight will not be for some time I'm afraid to say."

Rakka stood and stared for a moment, but then smiled. "That's okay, I knew I wasn't leaving any time soon… Besides, I like it here."

She opened her eyes to see Ptolemy looking at her with a trickle running down his cheek. He pulled her close to his chest and hugged her.

"I'm glad to hear that child… so very glad," he said through a spate of tears.

Rakka could not understand why this man was crying. It was as if her being here was… his fault?

His phone beeped. He let Rakka go and pulled it from its holster.

"Oh its Dante… What's he want?" he grumbled as he wiped his nose and tried to compose himself.

The remainder of the walk to the Factory was an almost humorous conversation with someone wanting to know counts of rads and magnetic currents. Just outside the gate Ptolemy barked, "I'm only a few minutes from home, I'll give you the numbers with everyone else!" He slapped the phone shut and looked at Rakka.

"Some people are so impatient!" he smirked. He looked over at the still unlocked gateway and the small group of residents of the Factory that had gathered there.

"Sorry kids," he called, "but I've got to lock the gate again."

"Aww, but why?" a young feather cried much to Hyohko and Midori's shuddering.

"Because something could get out," Ptolemy said as he winked at Rakka.

"What about the hole in the fence?" the one called Shota added.

Ptolemy shook his head as he picked up the chain and lock. "Naa… it's too large to get through that, and it can't jump."

The young feathers started looking about as if there could be something in there with them. "What is it?" some where yelling while others ran around wildly.

"It's me," Ptolemy said as he padlocked the gate. He opened his phone and pressed a button on its side making it chirp. "Gate secured," he told it.

"Testing," it replied. "Roger that – gate secured. Ionization functional. You may return."

"Thank you honey – see you soon – oh, how's the injectors?"

"On line again… well done."

Ptolemy smiled. "Good. Love you." He gently closed the lid to his phone and slid it into the bag this time, along with some papers he had and a few other items. He looked up and saw Rakka curiously looking at him.

"That was my wife Janice," he said with a grin. "She puts up with so much… Maybe I'll bring her some day. She's always wanted to see this place."

"We'd love to have her," Rakka smiled back as they walked to the rear of the Factory. He held his hand up for her to stop.

"This is as far as you can come dear," he said to her. He bent down and looked at her again. "Listen, I told you what I did for a reason."

Rakka blinked at him. "You did?" she asked.

He sighed. "Kuu was only here for two short years," he said. "You will be here for much longer than that. You should be ready for many Kuus to pass through your life here."

Rakka looked worried at the man. "Are you saying I should not make friends with them?"

He shook his head. "No dear, that's not it at all. Make as many friends as you like. But, you'll need to be their guide, much like Reki and Nemu were yours. You will need to teach them, love them, and let them know that the future for them is theirs to choose. But you will also have to overcome the sadness of seeing many of your friends depart before it is your own day of flight."

Rakka smiled. "It's okay, really… I've learned that a good Haibane will always have their day of flight. And you've shown me that it is wonderful."

"The wings are amazing, aren't they? If only you could see them from where I've seen them," Ptolemy commented. He looked down and smiled at her. "Just be wary of those whose wings fall out and tails grow, hear?"

He stood up after tweaking her chin and kissing her on her forehead.

"Bless you child." He then turned and stepped down to the lower level and opened a door.

Rakka felt a strange sensation as Ptolemy stepped in. Both a flash of heat and cold swept over her, and she could have sworn she heard cackling.

"Demon's Gate portal now active," a woman said from a control seat. The monitors around her showed readings of power flux and aural levels. She adjusted some settings as she saw the approach of a life form in the stream.

A door behind her opened. Ptolemy stepped out, but his bag yanked him back.

"**I-TOLD-YOU-THAT-THERE'S-NOTHING-IN-THERE-FOR-YOU!**" he barked as he yanked the satchel from the grasp of something that was screaming and laughing in the dark green atmosphere he had just exited. The door slid shut pinching the finger of the creature that had attempted to take the bag. Ptolemy smacked a small smoldering ember off his jacket and grumbled. He looked at the woman and hugged her as she stepped up to him.

"How are things?" he asked her.

"Anti-Matter injectors are all back on line and the system is normal again," she replied.

"Good, we'll need them working when Bakuu is released," he said. He sat down and caught his breath. "I'd love to be there when that happens… That will be some show."

Janice sat beside him and rubbed his hand in hers. "Are you okay?" she asked.

He smiled and laughed. "Coming through the gate always takes it out of me," he said to her. "But, that's what I get for playing with God's Power, now isn't it?"

Janice shook her head and looked at the table behind them. "Speaking of which, we received a telegram from him while you were out."

"Oh?" Ptolemy asked as he put on some reading glasses. "What's the boss want now?"

He opened the telegram and burst out laughing.

Janice looked puzzled at her husband. "What does it say?"

He leaned over and kissed his wife. "Happy anniversary," he replied then looked at it again. "Happy two hundred fifteenth anniversary!" he corrected.

A bell chimed and Janice turned to the console. "Apogee Report," she said.

Ptolemy looked over the readings. "Redirect it to one of the other sites. Glie is already getting four soon… with those twins still in cocoon and the other two inbound… let someone else have the fun of a Haibane. What's our schedule for tomorrow?"

She tapped a screen and flipped a digital schedule up. "We have two Days of Flight… one in Tripoli, the other in Glie… uh… the one in Glie is at four in the morning our time…"

Ptolemy rubbed her shoulders. "I'll set the alarm," he told her. "I'll get supper going."

They adjusted a few settings then called it a night.

oOo

_**Play the RPG Sadako's Well on AnimeMangaWorld! - Email for the address**_

_**Join the Renmei - Visit the C2 Community and Discussion Forums of Charcoal Feathers of Glie & Surrounding Territories here on FFN!**_

Six Flags ©2004-2011 Six Flags Entertainment Corporation

Characters from Haibane Renmei ©2004-2011 Yoshitoshi ABe

©2004-2011 The Golden Halos Project/DMS

Edited and Remastered 1106.08


	2. Ptolemy

**.**

**2 0 1 1 - R E V I S I O N**

**-O-**

_Original FFN Intro:_

_The history of mankind is a lie. All knowledge, all memories, anything from before 220 years ago is false. And it is because of my work that this is so. My name is Claudius Ptolemy... scientist, philosopher, engineer, dreamer... What a fool I was..._

_Original FFN #2037299_

_First published 8/30/2004_

**H A I B A N E - R E N M E I :**

**C O R P O R A T I O N**

Chapter Two

**PTOLEMY**

By R. A. Stott

_The history of mankind is a lie._

_All knowledge, all memories, anything from before two hundred twenty years ago is false._

_And it is because of my work that this is so._

_My name is Ptolemy… scientist, philosopher, engineer, dreamer…_

_One day, I dreamed of capturing God's Power for mankind…_

_What a fool I was…_

* * *

He stood on the balcony of his apartment listening to the din being sent up from below as the busy Friday night rush to leave the city was causing the usual backups on the interstate. As his wife joined him there, he laughed to himself at the roar being generated by the motors of hundreds of automobiles and trucks on the highway, and by the jets overhead.

"Was it this noisy before?" he asked her.

She hummed into his ear. "The previous world was noisier honey, remember?"

They turned and entered the apartment. The glass door slid shut behind them sealing out the cacophony and returning them to the solitude they were used to. He picked up a notepad and sat in his favorite chair with a tired thud.

"What's the schedule for tomorrow?" he asked his wife as she sat in a recliner next to him.

She put on a small pair of reading glasses and looked at a remote for the television. "Let's see," she said as she switched the unit on. She held the channel selector down. The screen rapidly switched about the dial.

"LU… CER… NE, TRI… PO… LI, GL… IE TER… MI… NAL LAN… DINGS SCH… ED… ULED…" the television squawked as it rattled about the channels and the many faces and voices spoke the broken words. "GL… IE WILL RE… PORT TWO LAND… INGS… FINAL."

Ptolemy rubbed his eyes. "Four landings… Tomorrow is going to be a busy day," he said as he laid his head back against the chair's rest. "And what with Bakuu getting ready for flight… I need a break!"

"No rest for the weary," his wife jibed at him as she settled the remote on a channel showing a drama about the police.

He closed his eyes and sighed. Maybe a nap would be nice now.

The phone rang – no such luck.

"Ptolemy," he grunted as he answered the ringing menace. "Oh, hello Dante… yes those were the readings… only if you want to get on Beatrice's bad side… yes… no… no… NO! Dante, put those in and the core will shoot out… check the math again… okay… uh huh… that's right… Monday… Yes Monday. Just as long as we don't have a major launch… that's right… bye…"

Janice looked at her husband and covered her face as she hid a snicker. Ptolemy shook his head as he put the phone back in its cradle.

"The look that you get when you talk to him…" she giggled.

He flopped back down in his chair. "We should have never put a poet in charge of communications between the basement and the attic," he snorted. He sat back and dozed off.

A vibration on his belt startled him awake about an hour later. The cell phone on his belt was massaging his hip with its silent ring. He looked over at his wife and noticed she too was being buzzed by her phone. They looked at each other and distinctively flipped their units open simultaneously.

"This is a priority alert – launch in progress… launch in progress…" a computerized voice told them.

"Code alpha two seven nine… Ptolemy," he said to the machine. "Subject launch?"

"Location Glie wall northwest one-fifty-six mark two-five – subject Bakuu…" it replied.

"And you worried about a 4:30 wake up call," Ptolemy smirked to his wife. "Call in the gang… this looks like an all-nighter…"

* * *

The control room was much busier than usual. Cramming four people in the small room was tight enough. The two younger people that had joined Ptolemy and his wife were frantically going over readings and monitors while he was busy putting on his jacket and she was loading his bag with equipment.

"Professor, there is a deviation in the landing readings," a girl working at the station his wife would normally be at announced. He leaned over and tapped a dial with a power reading on it. It lowered as he rapped it.

"Remember, these settings and gauges are much older than you, kiddo," he laughed. "They sometimes need a knock up the side of their heads."

"Now Claudius, be nice," Janice scolded him. "My controls are all that keeps you from getting snatched up by the bogeymen in the portals." She looked over at the door waiting his departure. "Oh, I'd love to go with you this time…"

"Actually, that might not be a bad idea," a deep burley voice said from the doorway to the cramp room.

"Director Plato…" Ptolemy smiled. "I didn't think you'd be here…"

He laughed, shaking his huge girth. "And miss an event like this? Surely you jest Claudius. I'm sure even the folks up in the attic are watching as well."

"As are those in the basement," the man seated at the second console chair added. "There's a marked increase in power coming from below. Upper levels have been building for the last hour…"

Ptolemy looked over the readings as he put his hat on. "Looks like there's going to be a tug of war," he said as he zipped his bag shut. He looked back at his wife and saw the expression on her face as she stared at the director.

"Hey," he said as he patted her on the shoulder. "You always said you wanted to go there."

She blinked and looked at him, then back at the door that led through the wall.

"I… I just never thought… I mean… the portal is full of…" she whispered.

"The portal is full, that's for sure," Ptolemy said with a laugh. "It's full of imps, minor demons and the occasional lost soul. And they all will prod you, dig at you, and try to take things off you. But they can't do anything to you, nor will they be able to block our way. Remember, you are human. You are superior to them. Their strength is simply fear. If you don't fear them, even the largest of them can't harm you."

Janice looked at the director. "But why send me in now… I've never gone before…"

Plato laughed again. "We've never had the chance of a release of any of the saints before," he said. "I need a second set of eyes and an on-sight visual report for cross referencing." He handed her another cell phone and a small bag that contained a video camera and other equipment. "Be ready in ten minutes," he added a bit more sternly.

They stepped into a closet to get her a jacket and hood. The creatures of the portal weren't dangerous to them, but they still could burn you, so protection was needed. She fumbled through the garments.

"What was it like?" she asked with a nervous stammer in her voice.

Ptolemy examined a knitted hat that he placed on her head. "What was what like?" he asked her as he placed his hand on her cheek and smiled.

"What was it like the first time you went through?" she queried.

Ptolemy gave a slight grunted laugh. "You mean the first time I went, or the first time through this version of the portal?" he asked. "I was inside the wall when this all first settled down."

Janice placed her head on his shoulder and sighed. "That's right… you were here after the over-blast…"

"That time wasn't as nasty as the second time I had to go in and out of one of the walled areas," he sighed. "The dwellers hadn't the time to set up camp in the portals then. The second time, they were waiting. They stole my watch, my wallet, and my underwear…"

He looked down to see her staring up at him with round eyes.

"Your underwear?" she asked blankly.

"BVDs… gone!" He turned away and grinned to himself, leaving her wide-eyed and trying to finish getting dressed.

* * *

Ten minutes and one very tight belt later…

"We'll need to enter from a different portal," Ptolemy noted as he leaned over the control panel and tweaked at the settings of the corridor. "Let's see… huh… ah, here we go… hope he doesn't mind the visit…"

"Can't we use the same portal you used the other day?" Janice asked him. He shook his head.

"Normally, with the time between visits, I'd say yes, but this is an exception." He threw a handle which made the floors below them thunk and clank. The doorway out of the room shifted to one side slightly. "There… we're now set for the second portal. That should confuse the critters in there…"

"Yes sir, Professor Ptolemy," the man in the chair closest to him said. "Will you need anything else?"

Ptolemy looked up and tapped the thin wire mesh that made up a cage. The large black bird inside gave a slight squawk.

"Better ready Mabel for launch," he said as he slipped the crow a cracker through a slit in the door. "I don't know what the escape of Bakuu will do to communications."

The door behind the professor and his wife slid open and the green light of the corridor greeted them, bathing them in its eerie glow. Ptolemy shook Janice with a gentle nudge and put her hood up on her overcoat. He picked up their bags and then stepped into the portal with her in tow.

The journey was surprisingly brief. Indeed, the shift of the gate to another exit had brought what Ptolemy had hoped for – a lack of disturbing characters along the route out. There were a few stray naughty things that seemed more worried of two living creatures moving through their world than snatching anything off them. But, as usual, a single figure ran up to the man and tried to snatch his bag by tossing something fiery at him.

Ptolemy swatted the fire ball with his jacket and his hand that was in his pocket. He then held the gym bag with small demon attached up to glare at it. It grinned back.

He sighed. "Jester, you bother me, you know that?" He then flicked the creature off and hurried his wife to the exit.

A few items on the wall surrounding the secret door in the back of the junk shop clattered to the ground as it opened to let the two of them out. Janice bent over and placed her hands on her knees. It felt as if someone had knocked the wind out of her. She glanced over to see her husband leaning against the door in much the same condition.

"Are we having fun yet?" he asked her panting.

She gave a slight laugh. "Does it always feel like this?" she asked wearily.

"Inbound, yes," Ptolemy said as he stood upright and smacked the small ember still stuck to the outside of his jacket. "It's not so bad on the outbound though… oh, hello there…"

Janice looked at where Claudius was staring and saw an elderly man standing there. He was a bit dirty and his expression was not completely inviting.

"Must have been a good reason for you to mess up my back room, ea Ptolemy?" he grumbled.

"Corporate business," Ptolemy replied to him as he opened his cell phone and pressed a button making it chirp. "Landing complete," he reported to the device. "Heading out to station." He then hurriedly walked Janice out of the backroom of the junk shop and into the dark Glie morning. The snow that had fallen the day before crunched under their feet.

"The timing of all this is bad," he said as he lifted his collar and blew a warm steamy blast across his fingers. "The twins should be about to hatch at Old Home, there's two incoming new feathers with one going rogue and planting out near Sadako's Well in the morning, and Bakuu just couldn't wait another day, could she? Hey, are you okay?"

He noticed the odd look on his wife's face. She was staring at the dark buildings around them. The strangeness of it all was hitting her, having just come from a world of cluttered alleyways and ultra-modern designs to this rather quaint setting. The roar of the outdoors was missing – only the soft settling of new-fallen snow filled her ears. She drew in a deep cold breath, bringing in the incredibly clean air into her lungs. It stung, almost hurt. She coughed slightly, as if a smoker who had just been given oxygen.

"This is incredible…" she said as she looked around. "I never dreamt that it would be so beautiful…"

Ptolemy took her hand and gave her a weary smile. "It would be nice to stay, wouldn't it?"

She looked at him squarely in the eyes. "You know that's impossible," she stated.

He laughed. "I know," he replied with a peck to her cheek. "I just wanted to know if you remembered that yourself. The clock is running. We have about thirty hours left."

"Does that include the time you spent here yesterday?" she asked as they headed towards the south road.

"Humm… I don't know," Ptolemy said. "I've never come back in so soon after a visit… I guess we should find out." He flipped his phone open and keyed the side button causing it to make what Janice thought was a totally out of place chirp in this serene town.

"Plato," a deep loud bark came from the phone. Ptolemy shook his head and switched to normal contact.

"Listen, we need to know if my time is limited because I was here yesterday," he requested.

There was a heavy laugh that could be heard even with it muted slightly by the earpiece. "That all depends, old friend," Plato chuckled. "Bakuu is one of the early saints… last thing she probably remembers would be coming after your head!"

"Something tells me I should have brought my hardhat," Ptolemy laughed. "Have Rhea run some tests please. Last thing I need is to find the doors shut to me at the end of this."

"That would disappoint Jester, wouldn't it?" the phone joked back. "I'll have her run the tests." The scientist slapped the phone shut and took Janice by the arm as they strolled through the now quiet town.

"This is lovely," she said. "It wouldn't be so bad to stay here if we could."

Ptolemy snorted. "Only if we wanted to scare the hell out of these people," he said. "Time would snap on us like a hungry lion. All they'd find would be two shriveled husks."

"You've been watching too many Mummy movies," she kidded him as she leaned her head against his shoulder and squeezed his arm. "What do we have to do now then?"

She found her kit bag being held up to her face. "You will find your spectral scanner in here," her husband told her as they walked. "You should go to the Generation Station at the Hill of Winds – group four is there tonight running maintenance – set up and observe the wall at…" - he rummaged through his pocket and brought out a scribbled note he had taken the day before. "…one – five - six mark two five. That's Bakuu's location in the wall."

Janice blinked and looked up at him as she held her bag in her free hand. "A spectral scanner? You want an Apogee Report?"

Ptolemy shrugged. "It may happen – we don't know. Hopefully Bakuu will escape and return to where she came from. But if she doesn't, we'll need to know where she's going, right? And those readings will be best while in here."

Janice sighed and looked down. "I was hoping to be closer than that," she said as she dangled the bag at the end of its strap. "Where will you have to be?"

He stopped and looked down a street that had a clear view of the northwestern wall where the angel was held. "Closer than I should be I'm sure," he remarked. "But first, we must go to Old Home."

"Old Home? The Haibane?" Janice perked up at the thought of meeting her first Charcoal Feather, until she realized she'd probably stop at the windmills, which were before the old school buildings that made up Old Home. "What do you need there?" she asked.

"My guide, of course," Ptolemy laughed as they headed south out of town.

* * *

"P-Professor Ptolemy!" the man working on one of the tall masts that made up a generator tower had exclaimed when the two of them had shown up. "What brings you here?"

Ptolemy turned and looked behind them as they reached the top of the hill. "That," he said as he pointed at the wall to the northwest. A section was showing a dull light. It then flashed slightly then returned to the subtle light it had been giving before.

"What is that?" Janice asked as she hurriedly started to assemble the scanner. She stopped when her husband placed his hand on hers and shook his head.

"That's just pre-ignition," he told her. "We still have roughly another day to wait from what I'm seeing here. Saints need a great deal more energy than that slight burst to launch."

"Saint!" the man yelped which brought the others in his party running to gather around them. "That's a saint there?"

"D'you mean this is almost over?" another man called out.

"A saint? A saint?" a few more were chanting hopefully.

Ptolemy had some difficulty settling the men down who were now clamoring over them for information. "Gentlemen… gentlemen, please! We are just here to watch over the launching of the first saint. It's not an all-out release!"

"But it could be, right?" one in the back yelled at him.

"We don't know that yet," he replied. "This is our first one ever!"

"Didn't they say that if the saints leave, the walls would fall?" another in the back asked.

"Hearsay," Ptolemy barked. "The Haibane are still here and need our help."

"But if the saints leave, wouldn't the Haibane leave too?" the first man asked.

Ptolemy sighed. "I don't know. And I don't know if this will start a chain-reaction. We just need to watch and see. And to that, my wife will be joining you here on station… got that?"

The first man looked at his fellow workers. "We'll be out of here in about another two hours… and our time limit will be up until next month… Group Five gets in here later tonight…"

"Ah, then maybe you can tell us then," Janice broke in. "Why is there a month between visits?"

The first man shook his head. "You're asking me? You're supposed to be the ones in charge…"

Ptolemy smiled. "We don't normally come in here so often – we're not accustomed to this."

"Oh, well then," a man next to the first grunted, "we know about the thirty hour limit, but our union makes us leave at about twenty-four hours total, then gives us a month to recover ourselves… which means I'm back on a PECO pole somewhere…"

"Conectiv!" a man to his right barked.

"Kansai Electric!"

"AEP!"

"FPL!"

"ConED!"

It took Ptolemy a moment to stop the men from chanting out their respective jobs outside the walled town. But it was becoming clearer than even these men did not know if they could do consecutive days inside the walled area either.

The phone call he received from Rhea was pretty much the same.

"The union made us switch them out early then keep them out for a month for so long that we never got an accurate reading on that, Claude," she told him over the phone, which was now showing signs of static. Each time the light would pulse on the wall, the noise in the receiver would be intense. "You were there for how long yesterday?"

A static burst made him pull the phone away from his ear as he and his wife continued on towards Old Home. "About six to eight hours… the readings should be in the final report the computer should be printing out about now," he told her as they turned off the path and over the small footbridge at the bottom of the hill.

"Ah yes, I'm getting those right now… Let me get back to you…" There was another discharge and the phone lost contact. Ptolemy looked back over towards the northwest and saw the wall settling down again.

"Oh, what are these?" he heard Janice ask. He saw her looking at a series of tiles hanging on a rack inside the curved arch entry to the complex. He looked at them and pulled out his watch.

"Those are the markers that tell everyone where the Haibane are," he said as he closed his watch. "It's three in the morning… why are those two out? I thought they had a curfew…"

"Damn, why am I not surprised to see you here, Ptolemy?" they then heard. They looked across the courtyard to see an old woman scowling at them.

* * *

"Your troops seem to be spread out thin, aren't they?" he asked the housemother as she poured hot tea for them as they sat at her table in her small kitchen.

She huffed. "Not that you or the Corporation cares," she snorted.

"Oh, is that why I'm here then?" Ptolemy asked as he dropped four cubes of sugar into his cup. "I thought we were just keeping the flow of new 'guests' from landing anywhere they wanted." Janice looked at her husband with a little shock.

"Pretty much blew it on that one out by the wall, didn't you?" the housemother scoffed. "Nemu, Hikari and one of the girls from the Factory are out there waiting for the landing you called for. Kana's upstairs watching over the twins' cocoons by herself, and that wall of yours is keeping the children awake! I had to put up a blanket on their windows to keep that flashing from waking them up! Of all the time I could have used that good-for-nothing…" She trailed off as she sat down.

"Reki was more help than you expected, wasn't she?"

The housemother looked at him. "You never met her… how would you know?"

Janice cleared her throat. "As the Renmei keeps tabs on the Haibane, The Corporation must watch over everyone as well, _including the Renmei_. We have information on every Haibane that passes through. It is our jobs to see that they have clear sailing on their comings and goings."

"Huh," she snorted. "Do you have a file on me as well?"

Ptolemy sipped his tea. "Where is Rakka? You didn't mention her," was his reply to her question.

The old woman laughed. "Asleep… Old Home has been given special dispensation from the Renmei. No one is needed for their work save her, because of all the new hatchlings you're dropping on us!"

Ptolemy nodded. "Hey, don't look at us… we're just the guides, and the machinery is old and crotchety, just like me!"

A bell rang outside. Then again, and again, and again. It stopped for a moment then resumed.

"Oh that Kana!" the housemother grumbled. "Can't she get that clock to not ring at night!"

There was a rumbling of footsteps running about that could be traced around the upper floors. This was followed by them running down a stairwell with someone repeatedly saying "Sorry – sorry – sorry!"

Ptolemy leaned on his hand. "Looks like someone is trying to fix old Thi's clock…"

"What!" Kana screeched to a stop by the doorway out. "You know about that blasted clock?"

"Reverse the gear on the clapper's timing mechanism and set the ratio-pulley to off when you want to run the clock without the bell," he told her over his cup of tea. "Besides, Thido never finished the bell timer properly… he always planned on using the set from the old main clock to fix it, but his day of flight came before he could complete it."

Kana stood agape at Ptolemy. "Damn!" was all she could say. Then she noticed the look she was getting from across the table.

Janice sat and stared at the halo and wings, her cup held off her saucer in mid-sip. Kana looked back at the man who was standing up now and putting his hat on.

"Who the hell are you?" she barked, making Janice sit back a bit – an angel swearing wasn't what she expected of her first encounter with a Haibane.

Ptolemy took Kana by the arm and guided her out towards the clock tower. "I'm the man that was here with Rakka yesterday, and we'd best get that thing shut off before we wake the dead! Honey, could you watch over the cocoons while we take care of this?"

Janice jumped up. "The what!" she weakly yelped, but her husband was already out of range.

"Oh, come on," the housekeeper said as she put a shawl on. "Best be safe than sorry," she added as she took Janice up the stairs with a flashlight.

* * *

An hour later and the bell finally had been silenced. Kana had suddenly been all over Ptolemy about the book and information on the clock, completely forgetting her duty to watch over the cocoons. It didn't matter if this was a total stranger, he knew about THE CLOCK.

He scanned through the book that had been left with the mechanism and smiled. "Have you ever shown this to your boss at the clock-works?"

Kana wiped her forehead as she finished refitting the ratio-pulley. "What, that old thing? Um, no… he'd probably just laugh at it. He knows I'm working on this monster, but I think he's just trying to placate me. He told Rakka that he thought I had potential, but ever since the New Year he's been on my case about everything."

Ptolemy nodded as he flipped to the last written page. "Ever wonder why he works on that clock in town?" he asked her.

"Well duh," she cracked. "His father was a clock repairman. So was his father, like he doesn't remind me about that every chance he can get."

"Did you know that clock repair wasn't his first choice in careers?" Ptolemy pointed at the page he had opened in the book.

Kana looked hard at the scratches someone thought were text. "…sent his son to me," she started to decipher aloud. "…wants to be a… bartender!"

Ptolemy rubbed his neck. "I remember that – he wanted to sell the business and open a bar. I remember Thido wanting to throttle him."

Kana clasped her hands across her face but couldn't stop from bursting out laughing. "A Haibane wanting to throttle Master? Oh, I would have given anything to see that… hey, wait a minute…"

Ptolemy cocked his head. "Umm?"

"What's a guy doing here at Old Home?" Kana asked planting her fists into her hips. "We're all girls here!"

Ptolemy grunted. "Only by mere chance, dear. This was a co-ed college once. Just because the current adult occupants are all female is just happenstance. Besides, you have boys in your Young Feathers… Thido just happen to be one of the last adult ones at Old Home. He also still holds the record of being the oldest Haibane to reach his day of flight… He was here forty years… Which was odd in its own right, especially since he seemed never to show it…."

"Damn, you guys at Corporate do know everything!" Kana remarked with a smirk. "Does that mean you know where we came from before coming to Glie?"

His phone chirped a song. He thanked whoever it was that was looking over him so he could avoid that last question. He flipped it open and attempted to answer it.

"You touched a plate!" Rhea screamed into his ear before he could reply. It seemed he found someone that was more hyper than Kana.

"I've touched them before," he answered her yell in a calm tone.

"Yes, but you didn't re-enter the walls the next day!" she yelped back. There was a static outburst as the wall flashed again. But this time, the noise remained. "What you've… HISSSSZK! …ly increased… BUZZP! …time capabil… GUZZZZZITT! …possibly been the trigger for… SASHH! …happening! Ptolemy …PPPPITH! …hear… ZEEK!"

The phone gave one last pop as Ptolemy leaned out a window and looked towards the northwest. The wall was now giving a more constant sheen as the pre-dawn was starting to crawl up from behind it.

"Wow! I've never seen the wall do that before," Kana exclaimed as she stuck her head out the same narrow window Ptolemy was looking out of. "Did you and Rakka start something?"

The scientist wrenched himself free of the small window. He checked his watch and nodded. "No, this was happening before we got there, but I'm sure Rakka may have been the catalyst. I must get her and head up there."

* * *

Janice stood in the doorway and stared at the two large oddly wrapped cocoons. One seemed slightly larger than the other, and also seemed to be engulfing the second sphere slightly.

"Can't remember when there ever were twins before," the housemother noted as she sat in an old school chair across from the spheres. Janice stepped up to the pair and lightly touched the soft almost furry surface. She pulled her hand back to see the pile of material that had flaked off on her.

"Oh my," she exclaimed. "This really is charcoal dust!"

"Uh huh," the housemother grunted. "It's more like pumice. And it gets everywhere… these two have been exceptionally busy with it! It does make a good polish, though… and I've found it cleans stubborn pots well when mixed with just a little sand… Ea?"

The housemother sat perplexed. Janice had pulled a device from her bag and was starting to poke around the two cocoons.

"Amazing… This dust is of the same composition as if…"

"…as if they had been through extreme heat," Ptolemy finished for her as he entered the room with Kana. "It's been designated 'reentry dust' by the lab boys."

"And the embryonic fluid inside," she added while showing him her device's readout, "that's L-C-L, isn't it?"

Ptolemy examined the first cocoon. "A close enough representation… It doesn't have a bloody taste to it… probably because of the cleaner saline base to it…" He then took his wife aside.

"Listen, the event seems to have increased in speed," he told her. "We'll need to take our stations a bit sooner than I expected. I've lost communications with com-base due to the static the saint is putting out."

"Isn't this too soon?" she asked then thought better of it. "Of course… how are we supposed to know if it is or not?"

"Bakuu has been hung up in stasis for so long, I think she's getting tired of the wait, don't you think?" he joked. "Kana, I need Rakka… could you get her please?"

"Right," she said as she dashed off towards the far wing of the building where Rakka's room was.

"You'd best be heading for the observation station," Ptolemy told his wife as he kissed her on the forehead. "I wouldn't want both of us to be late. I'll see you as we're heading up there soon."

Janice smiled and was about to say something when her bag chirped.

"It's the inbound to the wall area!" she exclaimed as she pulled out the scanner. "Oh of all the times…"

"Of course," Ptolemy noted. "We were supposed to be up by 4:30 AM, remember? It's now 5:00…"

"Is that it?" the housemother asked as she looked out a small window and traced a streaming shower of sparks across the sky.

"Exactly," the scientist said. "I hope the ladies out there are paying attention."

* * *

Hikari was resting against the cold stone of the well, wrapped in two warm blankets. She was supposed to be awake to watch over the area, but the cold night's air had made her drowsy. About an hour before she had been tromping back and forth slapping her face and telling herself not to be a 'Nemu'… much to the namesake's complaints when she stirred enough to hear her.

Midori gasped for air, the way most people react when they wake up thinking they're late. She looked down at her hand, which had been near the ground. Something had touched it. It had been one of Hikari's blankets sloughing off her.

"Hey 'Homer!" she barked at her using the Factory's slang for Old Home. "You're supposed to be on watch!"

"Huh? What?" Hikari jumped up startled. "Oh, I'm sorry! I just sat down for a moment!" She looked about at the early dawn coming over the eastern corner of the sky. "Oh, I hope I didn't miss it! I'm sorry…" She clutched her shawl and blanket and started to cry.

"Oh for Pete's sake!" Midori griped. "Get a hold of yourself! It's not the end of the world!"

"Hey you two," Nemu quietly said from her sleeping blanket, "if you're finished yelling at one another, look up in the sky."

Hikari wiped her eyes and slowly lifted her head. Midori had snapped an angry look at her fellow senior Haibane then glanced upwards where she had been directed. It took her a moment of realization for her to instinctively look back. What she saw made her duck down as if she were expecting something was about to crown her in the head. She lowered her arm and gazed over her shoulder again at the sight.

It looked like a small comet was about to land on them, a streamer of sparks and lights were behind it. A flash of light from the northwest lit the sky momentarily. It caused the streamers from the incoming New Feather to act as if someone had blown them away. They resumed normal trails after the illumination had subsided.

"What was that?" Hikari asked.

"That's amazing," Midori could only say.

Nemu sat up and clamored out of the bag. "Whatever it was moved it," she said as she wrapped herself in a free blanket. "Look, its moving further south - southeast."

"We've got to follow it!" Hikari yelped as she started to head away. She stopped when she saw the dark forest beyond.

"Can't run in there without one of these," she heard and found her flashlight being tossed to her by Midori.

Ptolemy gritted his teeth. "Damn it Bakuu! Look what you're doing!" he snarled as he had watched the shift the burst of light had done to the incoming comet.

Kana ran into the room at that point. "M-Mr. Ptolemy! You'd better see this!"

"I can see it fine right here, dear," he replied as he shook his head at the window.

"Huh?" Kana said as she was caught off guard. "No, no! It's Rakka!"

The old scientist looked at her then the housemother, who was giving him the same strange look.

They entered the hallway to Rakka's room and saw the light coming out of her door.

"It's totally wild!" Kana said almost giddy. "Wait 'til you see this!"

They looked in and saw Rakka asleep… in mid air just dangling there, as if someone was holding on to her halo, or it had been strung from the roof, as she slowly spun. She was bathed in light from the brilliance that the circle over her head was giving off. She then flashed, much like the wall in the northwest was doing.

"Whoa! Look at that!" Kana said as she lowered her hand she had brought up to shield her eyes.

Briefly, just for a slight moment, her small flightless gray wings had been augmented with a large set of white and golden feathers. As the light faded, so did the add-ons.

"Mother have mercy!" the housemother exclaimed under her breath. "They are angels!"

Ptolemy looked at her. "You ever had doubts?" he remarked. "We must wake her… she's needed at the wall."

"Umm…" Kana said as she stepped back. "Is it safe to do that?"

Ptolemy stepped into the room and looked at the halo that was holding Rakka over her bed. It was hot, he could tell. There was another flash of light, and he got a face full of feathers. They were real, not illusions. They quickly faded.

"Impressive," he remarked. "Rakka… Rakka, wake up!" he sternly told the sleeping Haibane.

She opened her eyes. As she did, she was gently lowered to her mattress.

"Mr. Ptolemy," she said with a yawn, "I just had the most wonderful dream… uh…" She looked down then up as she began to see the oddness of this. "Mr. Ptolemy, why are you here, and why am I standing in my bed?"

"And why didn't I bring my camera?" Kana asked aloud.

Ptolemy smirked at her. "Quickly," he said to Rakka, "get dressed. Bakuu's day of flight is here, and I need you with me."

* * *

In the woods, branches were breaking and birds were screaming as they were aroused too early for their tastes. The streamer of light wasn't snapping much, it was the three ladies crashing through the brambles to keep up with the incoming New Feather. Daybreak wasn't helping much, as the dim light was making it harder to see where the comet was coming down. The flashing that was behind them seemed to be pushing the falling New Feather further out of the Western Woods, and closer to the southern farmer's lands.

"There! There!" Midori yelled as they burst out of the dense trees into a more open section. "OH! Look out! Don't STEP ON IT!"

The streamer of light entered the ground directly in front of the onrushing Hikari, and she planted her foot right on top of it! It had come down between some tall trees only a few yards from the wall in a section void of any snow.

"OH! Do you think I hurt it!" Hikari shrieked as she leapt off the spot she had stepped on. Nemu, out of breath but still with them, brought her big flashlight lantern up and lit up the footprint left by Hikari's shoe.

"No, there!" she said as a small sprout popped up from the ground in the middle of the toe-print. "This is going to be one tough little Haibane!"

"It had better be," Midori noted. "Just look at where it planted itself…"

The light of the early daylight was just starting to show just how cluttered the area was with brambles. It would need some clearing to allow the cocoon to grow properly.

"Look! Isn't that the Southern Farmer's Road?" Hikari exclaimed as she pointed over at a snow-lined dirt trail a few yards off to one side. The trees also were thinner. They were near the area where the wall curved gently and the forest to the west ended.

Nemu sighed and smiled. "Thank god. That will make it easier to take care of this," she said as she kneeled beside the new growth. "We'll need to keep it warm, at least until the cocoon starts to grown."

She laid her scarf around the sprout.

* * *

A crow squawked from the top of the gate out of Old Home.

"Yaa! Of all the time for you to be glaring at me you rat with wings!" Kana growled. She grabbed a small stone and reared back to toss it at the black bird. She was surprised to find it missing as she followed through with the pitch.

"Low and inside – Ball one!" Ptolemy said. "No tossing stones at my bird, please."

Kana gaped at him. "YOUR BIRD!" she shrieked as Ptolemy raised his hand and whistled.

"Mabel! Here girl!" he said. The crow gave a squawk and lighted on his outstretched finger much to Kana's shock. He gave the bird a cracker and removed a small pouch around its neck. He opened it and removed a note as he placed Mabel on his shoulder.

_"Professor Ptolemy,"_ the letter from Rhea said, _"because you touched the tag yesterday, it was like resetting your personal clock to zero. From what I was able to discern is that your special chronology created by the First Event has allowed you to undergo a Chrono regressive metamorphosis…"_

"Can't she ever keep it down to smaller words?" Ptolemy grumbled as he scratched Mabel's feathers. Kana just shook her head.

_"Please don't do this again, as we don't know what effect it has on either you or the saints in the long run,"_ the letter scolded him. _"As it is, touching the plaque seems to have been much like pulling the pin on Bakuu. At first, she showed only residual contact, as per previous times you did so. But this time, she reacted with a greater upsurge of energy approximately five minutes after initial contact."_ The vision of watching Rakka's journey the day before flashed through his head. Had having her touch Bakuu's energy while touching his hand brought all this out? Could this be an answer they had been searching for all along, and an answer why the Haibane were there in the first place? He would have to consider all this after Bakuu did her escape. He returned to the note.

"_She was showing a build-up of power even before yesterday"_ it said. _"As a matter of fact, it may have been her upsurge of energy that may have put the injectors out of alignment…"_

Ptolemy lowered the letter and looked to the northwest. "God, I hope not… that would mean that those other times we had injector errors could have been a sign of a saint ready for flight… Damn!" Plus, now knowing that her power had been building already shot down the idea that having himself and a Haibane touch the plaques would be a quick-fix release for the entrapped saints. He tapped his heel in disgust at that lost chance.

"Professor Ptolemy?" he heard behind himself. He turned to see Rakka standing at the doorway with a surprised look on her face. "I'm ready… umm, what's with the crow?"

"It's a friend of his," Kana snarled, getting a squawk from Mabel.

"Kana, please," Ptolemy said as he wrote a message on the back of the first letter. He stuffed it back into the pouch and reached up to put it over Mabel's neck. But the crow jumped over to Rakka and landed on her left wing. She squawked at him as if she didn't want to take it.

"You read it over my shoulder, didn't you?" the old man sniped at the crow. "Naughty bird!"

It squawked again. Rakka looked fearful at the creature as it yelled at the man.

"Mabel, you know as well as I do that there's no way to know what the outcome will be," Ptolemy told the bird as he gently placed his hand on her head and rubbed it. "Now be a good girl and take the message home. They have to be ready."

As he placed the small pouch over her head, Mabel nipped his finger with her beak – not hard, just enough for him to look at her straight on. He smiled and rubbed her head again.

"Get going you old crow," he laughed. "I'll be okay."

Mabel gave a small chirp. She then looked at Rakka. The young Haibane was surprised at how sad the bird looked. She was even more surprised when it rubbed its head against hers just before it spread its wings wide and lifted off.

"We must hurry," Rakka heard Ptolemy say as she watched the black bird fly off towards the east and over the wall.

"How often have you had that bird over here watching over us?" Kana interrupted. "Do you know just how much trouble I have with those crows!"

"NOW isn't the time, Kana," Ptolemy barked, gathering his self-control. "Rakka and I must get to the temple as soon as possible. May I borrow the Vespa?"

Kana stared at him. "Reki's scooter?" she asked without realizing it.

"It was hers, yes, after Thido… He was the first to use it," Ptolemy explained as he stepped over to the yellow motorbike. "May I?" he asked again holding his hand out waiting for its key.

Kana shrugged and laughed as she dug the keys out of her pocket and tossed them to him. "Hey, no prob. I don't use it during the snow anyway. You sure you can handle it in weather like this?"

Ptolemy smirked. "No sweat."

The crew at the Hill of Winds had been watching the light show along with Janice. They were preparing to depart as their time in Glie was drawing short when they were greeted by the shrieking squeal of Rakka on the back of the scooter as she and Ptolemy crested the hill along the road. She could have sworn that both wheels had left the ground just about then.

"Hi honey!" he said with a grin to his wife as he pulled to a stop.

"The VESPA!" she yelled at him. "Where in hell did you find that old thing!" Rakka understood the tone of her voice – the Professor was about to get a scolding!

"Well I told you I had found it a proper home!" he smiled.

"You nearly killed yourself with that thing!" she admonished him. She then saw the girl on the back.

"Who is that Mr. Ptolemy?" Rakka asked hiding from the lashing he was taking.

"Oh, don't be afraid," he laughed. "That's my wife Janice. And long ago, even longer than what I told Kana, this used to be _my_ scooter… but she made me get rid of it, so I brought it here for Thido to use."

"This is Rakka?" the woman asked as she stepped up to them. Rakka saw a strange look on her face. "My god, Claudius, tha…"

"Shh!" he hushed her, which caused Rakka to flinch and clutch him tighter. "Rakka is the Haibane in charge of the work inside the walls of this town, and my assistant today. That is all." He scowled at her and added, "It is the reason why she will be here for so long, understood?"

Janice held her hands up to her face and gasped. "Yes dear… I understand now…" she said as she stepped nearer to the Haibane. She smiled at Rakka and placed her hand on her head.

"Such a beautiful child," she said. "Now you take care of this old fool, okay? He means the world to me."

Rakka swallowed. "Um, yes ma'am!" she managed. But she noticed that even saying those few words seemed to affect the woman as she stepped back. Should she know her? Should she know these people?

"We're off," Ptolemy told his wife. "Oh, check your phone… we may still have internal communications…"

Janice pulled her phone and pressed the side button. Instantly, Ptolemy's chirped. He gave a thumb's up and revved the scooter's motor. Before Rakka could consider the situation any further, they tore down the path and turned onto the Old Temple Road, splattering snow and puddles as they went.

Janice sighed and smiled. "Her name is Rakka now," she said to herself. She walked back to set up her equipment.

The town was just starting to stir as they blew up the gravelly road that ran along. Rakka could just see the smoke from the bakery starting to rise from its chimney. The morning café had lifted their shutters for the day she could see through jolts and bounces the road was making the scooter make. She could have used something warm like that right now.

The town of Glie vanished behind them as they continued to climb out of the valley towards the Temple area as she clung hard to her pilot. She had stopped yelling long ago. Somehow, even at the extreme speed he seemed to have gotten the scooter up to, she felt safe with Ptolemy at the wheel… or handle bars. They had made the outskirts of the Temple region in a matter of minutes to her. But she still worried. Something in her heart was telling her that there was something about this man and his wife… mostly his wife… that was telling her they knew more about her – maybe even her life outside the walls of Glie.

A burst of light surrounded her. She wanted to look, but she was now being pressed to Ptolemy's body as he applied the breaks hard and skid the scooter to a stop.

"Damn… I think we might be too late to get any closer."

She pried her head out of his back and looked up at the old man. He was looking off to their right. His face was illuminated as if someone was shining a spotlight on him.

"But we must still get closer," he continued. He looked back. "There's a footbridge back that way, isn't there?"

Rakka looked at where they were – just outside the narrow pathway that led to the Temple of the Renmei. She saw a few of the Community Watch mulling about at the end of the path. They looked confused to her, not knowing what was happening to the wall nearby.

Then she remembered the bridge Ptolemy asked about. The Gideon Span, a rope suspension bridge roughly a mile from the waterfall near the Temple that created the river it spanned. The only people that were supposed to cross it were the Community Watch and those Haibane that failed to have a day of flight! The far landing was the entrance to the Scar's Village! She squeaked as Ptolemy spun the bike about and headed back towards it.

It wasn't far… maybe a quarter mile back, and it came up fast.

"No side saddling, dear," Ptolemy yelled back at her. He stood up on the scooter. "Swing your leg in!"

"What!" she yelped as she did as she was told and sat over the seat. He wasn't going to do what she thought he was about to do… was he?

He sat down with a thud and throttled the bike hard.

"OH!" she shrieked. "IT'S A FOOTBRIDGE! IT'S A FOOTBRIDGE! IT'S A FOOTBRIDGE!" she screamed at the top of her lungs.

He tore into the span, its wooden slats rattling off the tires of the scooter. The center of the bridge was shrouded in mist from the morning's fog. She prayed that there wasn't anyone on it – the scooter would not have left any room for them, and god knows how they would stop!

"Reki, watch over me! Reki, watch over me! Reki, watch over me!" she chanted to herself as they entered the mist.

Another flash and the fog seemed to push against them. She felt the bridge sway as if blown by a heavy wind.

"Hold tight to me dear!" Ptolemy yelled. "These boards are slick from the fog!"

"I wish I were still in bed!" she yelled back.

"Sorry," he replied. "If I knew Bakuu was so impatient, I would have come up the north bank of the river rather than the south… Here we go!"

Before she could ask what he meant, there was a hard thump and then the rumbling subsided. They had made it across. He brought the bike to a stop allowing her to look up.

From where this branch of the river flowed in from the west of Glie, its north bank was much closer to the wall than the south, and they were very close to the section that was glowing – more than just glowing, it looked as if a section was crumbling!

"Am I allowed here?" she asked as she hid behind the Professor.

Ptolemy did not answer. Rakka saw he was looking at a woman seated on a bench at the end of the dirt plaza for the bridge. She held a staff and was clothed in a wrap much like that of the Communicator, though her back was exposed, even on such a chilly morning.

"Umph… I was hoping she wasn't going to be here," Rakka heard Ptolemy mumble. He glanced back at Rakka and nodded. "Do not worry, she can not harm you. But she is a fallen Haibane."

Rakka's eyes flew wide and she held her breath. She had never seen a defrocked Haibane. She had fought so hard to prevent Reki from becoming one she wasn't ready to actually see one. She peeked under Ptolemy's arm at the woman.

"As I expected, the light has brought you, my dear Uncle Claudius," the lady said in a mocking tone as she stood up. Rakka could tell she was old, but not how old. The robes hid her body save the section of her back that was left exposed. The wounds of where her wings once were made her own ache.

"It has been a while, Bloodeagle," Ptolemy grunted. "I hope all is well? I will assume you know that I'm a bit busy right now..."

She held up a mask much like that worn by the Old Communicator. "When I wear this, it tells me all… But you know that," she snickered. She held it up and looked at the glow as if she were using a magnifying glass. "Seeing that the wall is screaming told me that you would soon be here."

"Bloodeagle?" Rakka asked quietly.

Ptolemy looked down at the hunkering girl. "When a Haibane does not have a day of flight, they loose their Haibane name. They must choose a new one for themselves when they come here," he explained to her.

"I took mine from a story I once read as a child," she said as she approached them, circling the bike to get a look at the young Haibane on the back. "Oh my, oh my! What beautiful wings!"

Ptolemy produced his badge and held it up to the old woman. She stepped back much like the Toga had the day before, as if she were being shown something that could harm her. She then shrugged and continued to circle the scooter.

"We haven't the time for this, Bloodeagle," Ptolemy barked at her. "How far is the light section of the wall from the Scar's Village?"

She muttered something incoherent under her breath as she slipped the mask over her face and looked at the wall. "Not far – in fact, directly in the center of the village. The Community Watch is keeping most of us inside today, but I'm allowed to my post because of my – heh – wardrobe."

Ptolemy looked at the wall. The light did seem to be right in the center of the path. He coughed and put his badge away and sat back down on the scooter.

"Very well… There won't be any flights today, Bloodeagle," he told the old woman. "You may return to your home."

"This is my home, Uncle Claudius," she snarled. "The others have ostracized me from my home in the village. I greet the newly damned. Why would they want me to mingle with them?" She then looked at Rakka. "You reek of the smell of Old Home, dear. How is that rundown hovel? I hear its bells from time to time… Is someone trying to finish Thido's work on that clock?"

Rakka clung to Ptolemy a bit tighter as he started the motor again. "Maybe next time, Bloodeagle," he said as they sped off.

Rakka looked about as they ran through a dark forest. This seemed to be Glie at its rawest. There were ruins of buildings and equipment scattered throughout the woods and underbrush. Some were vehicles she had never seen before, huge with strange tracks rather than tires. Somehow she knew what they were, but not what they were for. Long tube-like appendages stuck out of some while others seemed simply to be carriers of some sort.

"I'll be damned… the old Atlantien Defense Base… I thought that had been missed in the re-seeding," she heard Ptolemy say to himself. She would have asked what he meant, but so much was happening that she held her questions in check. They were now entering a village that seemed dark and forbidding to her, even with the light being cast from the wall ahead.

A stone crashed to the ground off the wall. A pillar of dust shot up. Ptolemy brought the scooter to a halt and got off. Rakka slowly followed as he held it upright for her. Her knees felt weak from all the jostling they had gone through.

"Stay close dear," he told her. "I'm sorry I dragged you along for this."

She snapped a look up at him. "Excuse me?" she asked.

He laughed while staring at the wall. "Well, you were needed if we were to enter the path under the wall… not here on the outside."

The wall flashed again, but this time, being so close to it, the wind blasted them with a hard gust, causing the scooter to tumble away. Rakka clung to Ptolemy's arm as her wings nearly lifted her off the ground.

"Windy today, isn't it?" a man leaning against a building nearby said to them.

"Ah, Mr. English… yes it is quite blustery," Ptolemy said to the stranger. "Are your people safe?"

The man nodded. "Any clue on why we're being sandblasted, Mr. Corporation?"

Ptolemy gestured to the wall. "A saint's day of flight," he said.

The man looked at him with a gaping shocked face. "Damn you!" he yelled. "Damn the Community Watch! These people should be watching this then!"

Ptolemy shook his head. "I never said they couldn't! Get them out here!"

"God-dammed idiots!" the man yelled. "Hey you! Hey everyone! Get out! Get out! The Saint is rising! The Saint is rising!"

"Who is that man?" Rakka asked. "He doesn't look like a Haibane…"

"He's not," Ptolemy said. "He's a townsman from Glie. He once made an off-color joke about my 'brother' and the Community Watch brought him here as punishment.

It took Rakka a moment to figure out who Ptolemy was referring to. "Oh, he's the one?" she blurted as she watched the man run about pounding on the doors of the village. Another burst of light blasted them with dust again and she hung on for dear life.

"He's the what?" Ptolemy asked as he tested his phone.

"Is he's the one brought here for yelling 'I am the Communicator'?" she asked as she recovered from the dust storm.

"Ea? Washi is Washi?" he asked as he knocked some dust off his hat and popped open the phone. "He wouldn't be the first foolish teenager to try that prank here… I really must ask the Renmei to be a bit more lenient on these kids..." He pressed the call button and waited.

Another flash, and this time the wind knocked Rakka flat and Ptolemy back. A house closest to the wall fell in on itself.

"Was there anyone inside that one?" Ptolemy shouted over the wind to Mr. English.

"Just my fish," he replied. "Ah well, it was time I moved anyway."

The phone chirped.

"Honey! Honey can you hear me?" he yelled.

The wind was starting to pick up at the windmills as well, and their generators swung to catch it. Every blade started to spin, and every governor and breaking system started to squeal and yelp as they attempted to slow the props down to keep the torque from over-heating the system. A few started to smoke.

Janice looked back at the nearest unit to make sure it was still safe to be near it. "Yes, yes I hear you dear!" she called back. "Where are you?"

"Ground zero," was the reply. "Any closer, and I'd be inside the wall!"

There was a burst of static as another flash lit the sky, even with the sun now cresting the wall. Behind her, a few of the windmills chirped a warning alarm and started to feather their blades in shut down mode, in an attempt to stop them from snapping their props off their shafts.

"The wind has picked up greatly here," she reported. "It's got to be worse there."

Ptolemy smirked and grinned to Rakka. "That would be putting it mildly, yes," he replied as he helped the young Haibane back to her feet. "I'd say we're within a few minutes of flight… do you have all your recorders running?"

Janice checked over the three units she had pulled from her bag – the spectral scanner, the video camera and a small computer that was taking in information from both units. The tripods that held the two recording devices were having a difficult time keeping the large units up without tipping over in the wind. She had finally collected a set of stones and had nearly buried both to keep them steady.

"Running… please dear, play it safe…" she told him. "If it starts going to pieces, get out of there… especially get… Rakka out of there!"

He looked down at the child. "That's not a bad idea," he said. He closed the phone and took her arm. "I'm going to move you back a bit to keep you safe."

"No," she said, firmly standing her ground. "No, I'm staying here."

"Rakka?" Ptolemy asked. He saw the look on her face – it wasn't the frightened little girl he had seen earlier. She was glaring at the wall - scowling at it in fact. "Rakka, what is it? What do you feel?"

She blinked then looked up at him. "Fury… Anger and fury… Why should I feel that?" She looked a bit harder at him. "And why should it be aimed at you?"

"Oh child, there are many reasons on why it should be on me," he said as he placed his hand on her head. "I would say that Bakuu isn't just going to have her day of flight, but maybe some retribution…"

Rakka swallowed as she felt the anger swell around her. She refused to think that such hate should be aimed at this man. He was good. She knew he was good!

A fissure cracked in the wall, and a stream of light shot skywards, much like the one she had seen when Kuu and Reki had flown. Only this was much larger, massive and rushing as if in a panic. It was then that a wing erupted from the stream. It was large – bigger than the houses at the base of the wall. It was soon followed by a second wing.

Fear rushed in and engulfed her in a drowning swarm that made her quake to her heels. She grabbed Ptolemy's hand and tugged. She had to get him away from here. Didn't his wife ask her to keep and eye on this old fool? Why wasn't he moving?

"No child," he said quietly as the wind died out momentarily. "I'm ready for this. This is my penance. This is my sin. An eye for an eye…"

"No! No! You must come with me!" Rakka shouted as tears started to steam down her cheeks. "This isn't your fault! This never was your fault!"

Ptolemy stood tall, his chin upright and his eyes closed. The village folk stood around the far end of the plaza that he stood in mumbling his name. Many knew who he was – they had seen him in the past. Corporation – Ptolemy – The man in the hat – The only person who showed them kindness when all else was lost – he stood before them, before the saint… claiming he had _sinned…_

"Dear, it is my fault," he said quietly. "You are my fault. These people are my fault. This world is my fault. I have sinned against man and god and it is time I repent."

"No!" Rakka whimpered as she tugged on his jacket. "No! You're kind… you're fun to be with! You can't be sin-bound! Not you!"

Ptolemy laughed and he opened his eyes to see the forthcoming saint. "It's funny… You say I'm sin-bound…"

"NO! NO! I DIDN'T SAY YOU WERE SIN-BOUND!" she screamed.

"No, I am sin-bound," he continued. "But for you to be freed of being sin-bound, you need to remember your dream… I can't help but remember my dream… I see it every night… every day… I tried to capture god's power… I made my anti-matter generator, and destroyed this world and the angels sent to stop me… I am a damn fool…"

Ptolemy dropped to his knees and bowed his head as the angel stepped from the light. She had a massive sword in her hand and an angry glare in her eyes.

Rakka screamed.

Janice saw Bakuu on the screen of her computer. She was looking down.

"Oh dear god… she's looking at Claudius!" she whispered to herself.

"That's not good, right?"

She nearly jumped off the ground as Kana leaped back as well and nearly fumbled the pair of binoculars she was using.

"Kana!" Janice cried then started to weep. "Kana, she's about to take my Claudius! I just know it! I just know it!"

"Oh man!" Kana said as she returned to looking into her binoculars. "She doesn't look happy! This is a saint? What's she got against the old man?"

They couldn't actually see the Professor, but the angel was tall enough to be seen over the trees from a distance and to those in the valley below. And worse, she seemed to be getting larger.

Her hair was long and golden. Her robes were strapped to her in a battle-garb that seemed to wrap her upper body only. Her dress flapped and waved in the renewed wind. It seemed to trail back into the stream of light which still shot heavenward. Her sword showed bright and silver with a large golden hilt which she seemed nervously to hold. She glowered down on the prostrate man and the small girl who was behind him and huffed.

She spun the sword once, making it do a deep whooshing sweep. She then grasped it tight.

The blade flash like lightning as she quickly raised it up with a heavy gust of wind.

"NO!" Kana shouted.

"Please god! Please!" Janice cried.

She held the sword high for what seemed to be an eternity.

Rakka felt herself be pushed away. She looked up from where she had fallen back to see Ptolemy's hand returning to his side.

"You do know I work for your father?" he said to the saint as he continued to stare at the ground awaiting his fate. "He and I are trying to right this wrong… you are just the first to come forth…"

"Sinner, REPENT!" the angle shouted.

"NO!" Rakka screamed and leapt for Ptolemy. "YOU'RE BEING USED!"

It seemed to Kana that the sword sliced the world in two in a slow-motion blur. She didn't even get a chance to utter a swear or react…

…or figure out why there was a flash of light and the sword spun back through the air and over the wall.

Ptolemy opened his eyes. There was a pair of small shoes scuffing the dirt below his face. He found Rakka draped over him.

"I want to be like you one day!" she shouted to the angel. "How could you do this to this man? Aren't you supposed to be full of forgiveness? Aren't you an angel of god? Aren't we his children? Aren't we to be forgiven!"

The fire vanished from Bakuu's eyes. A soft pair of blue eyes replaced those of anger a moment before. A look of wonderment swept her face.

"You," she addressed in an ethereal voice to the old man, "you who sinned have been forgiven." She looked at Rakka, who remained over Ptolemy. "How did you know? Why do you know of me?"

"I could feel your torment," Rakka said as she stood up off Ptolemy's back. "You knew that he wasn't fully to be blamed, but your hatred was being fueled by dark forces."

"Blasted basement," Ptolemy grunted as he started to get up, but found Rakka planting her hand on his back keeping him down.

Bakuu kneeled down. "Strange… you bear the mark of my father… I feel your energy… But your halo… feathers of gray… Who are you my child?"

She smiled and gave the angel a curtsy. "My name is Rakka. I am a Haibane."

"Haibane?" Bakuu asked as she again looked at the girl's wings. There was a caw in the air that then caught her attention. Rakka was shocked to see a crow land on the angel's shoulder.

"Isn't that your crow Mr. Ptolemy?" she asked in a whisper.

"I can't tell," he snorted. "You aren't letting me up!"

Rakka removed her palm from his back allowing him to sit up. He looked up to see the angel conversing with Mabel. He shook his head.

"Show off," he laughed.

The bird cawed at him. Bakuu looked down with approval to whatever remark the black bird had made.

"Charcoal feather, I understand now," she told Rakka. "It was your compassion for this man that shielded him with my father's power. And I fear that your surmise was also correct, Claudius Ptolemy. I was affected by those of the underworld."

"I do not hold you at fault," Ptolemy smiled. "We have been having this ongoing fight ever since this world came into being. Everyone must pass their trial before their day of flight. You have passed yours."

A realization then struck Rakka and she stamped her foot. She slowly turned towards the old man. "You did that on purpose!" she yelped.

He shrugged. "Some of it… not all of it…"

"Oup!" was all Rakka could muster as she turned beet-red.

"Should I get my sword back?" Bakuu asked her. Surprisingly to Ptolemy, Rakka turned and waved Bakuu to do so. The angel laughed.

Rakka sighed and blew her bangs up. She looked up at the angel and sighed again. "I don't get it… how could you do that?"

Bakuu looked at her in wonder. "Do what?" she asked.

"Well… you're an angel…" Rakka nervously stated. "You had a sword… why?"

"Rakka, you were always told that angels were the bringers of peace, love and forgiveness, right?" Ptolemy asked her.

She gave an "uh huh," which made her blush as she realized just how childish that had sounded.

"Rakka, angels are also God's soldiers," he explained. "And believe me you don't want to be on the reception end of a garrison of archangels."

"Three garrisons," Bakuu corrected him.

"Please, don't remind me," he said as he stumbled to his feet. "There is still much more work to be done to recover your comrades. With you being the first recovery, we just might be on our way."

"There is always hope," Bakuu smiled. It was odd to Rakka – just a few moments prior she was a fury waiting to strike. Now she was just a woman. She had even shrunk down to a more normal size. "And perhaps you should call your wife to let her know that I did not smite you down?"

"Ah, yes," he said as he fumbled for his phone. "Well, as it is quite obvious, you are free to go… I would assume that there will be some serious debriefing when you arrive."

"Yes… yes I would assume so," she said as she raised her hand above her head. The sword clanged over the wall and returned to her. She turned it to the flat side and reached out. She placed it on Rakka's halo which began to ring like a muted alarm clock. She smiled and slipped the sword into its sheath that was hidden under her robes.

"I thank you, Earth-born angel," she told her, "for your care while I was in stasis. I am humbled to you for the duty you have chosen while here. Please keep my fellow… saints do you call them?"

Mabel clucked a few short chirps, almost as if the crow were laughing to itself.

"Yes," Bakuu continued. "Please keep my fellow saints safe, will you please?"

"Yes! Yes of course!" Rakka said sprightly.

Bakuu then looked at those gathered in the plaza – at the former Haibane that were watching in the background, their eyes drawn and tired yet hopeful. In the center of the crowd stood the Old Communicator. As she walked towards them he got down on one knee and held his staff out to her. She placed her hand on the winged orb at the top and smiled.

"Yes dear, I'm fine," Ptolemy was busy telling his wife over the phone. "Who is that in the background crying? Kana? Why would she be crying? Who's a jerk?"

Bakuu stayed with the villagers for an hour before returning to the shaft of light. She turned to them and held her arms and wings wide.

"I shall be your herald," she told them. "I shall be your words and prayers to my father. After all, are we not capable of forgiveness?" She looked at Ptolemy and smiled.

He tipped his hat to her as Mabel settled on his shoulder. "God speed, Bakuu of the Seventh Realm. Safe journey."

She nodded and slowly stepped back into the light. It split and started to rotate around her. It quickly snatched her up and launched her up and out of Glie.

Janice watched the readings on her screen as the angel passed the normal apogee level and reached escape velocity. There was a slight deviation, as if something were attempting to draw her back, but nothing next to another impact would stop this bird from flying free.

The ride back to Old Home was long and quiet. Ptolemy needed to stop by Abandoned Factory to fill the tank of the scooter with oil and fuel, which meant a trip down a back trail she had never been down before. There were more of the strange pieces of decaying equipment scattered about, as well as dilapidated buildings that seemed to have last been lived or worked in centuries before. They finally entered the town through what she thought had been an unused alleyway beside the old bank near the Main North Gate. As they passed through town, Rakka could hear the people chatting about what they had seen that day out by the western wall. None that she could hear clearly were even close to what actually had happened, though one or two did get the 'angel' part right.

At the Hill of Winds, Ptolemy returned the scooter to Kana, who pounded his chest for being such a fool. His wife though draped herself across him and Rakka just holding them for what seemed like hours.

"Twelve turbines are fried I would say," Ptolemy said to Plato over his phone as he and Janice walked back towards town leaving the two Haibane to themselves. It was time to head home. "Yes, that was some wind she put out. The Service gang is going to have some work to do."

They entered the junk shop and left Glie behind.

Rakka lay in her bed looking at the ceiling. Kana sat backwards in a chair rocking back and forth looking out the window at some crows near the incinerator. She just didn't have the will to chase them today.

Hikari sat in another chair as she removed her muddy shoes. She had spent the entire morning clearing the brush around the new seedling out in the southwestern woods with Nemu and Midori. A local farmer had donated the use of his orchard torch, a portable heater used to keep fruit from freezing in frosts, to keep the seedling warm while the growth phase began.

"So, the angel actually tried to slice you in half?" Hikari asked. "You must have been scared out of your wits."

"I know I was," Kana said as she lowered her head. "I mean, I didn't know you were right in front of that blade, but when I saw it fly over the wall… What was that?"

Rakka shook her head. "I don't know," she whispered. "It was like someone told me to protect him. I just felt that she was being manipulated somehow, and that I could stop her… I never expected the reaction my halo gave her sword to do that."

Kana leaned over and flicked her finger off Rakka's halo making it twang. "It still seems to be a normal halo… You didn't put anything special in there when you made it, did you Hikari? No titanium or tungsten?"

"Like I had anything like that to put in there, silly," she laughed. "No, I just put in the light leaf paste that the Haibane-Renmei told me to do and cook it over the stove for an hour."

"Well whatever it was, it was amazing to see that sword sail over the wall," Kana giggled.

Rakka gave a light smile. But much of what had happened that day was still playing back in her mind. Especially…

_"My god, Claudius, tha…"_

_"Shh! Rakka is the Haibane in charge of the work inside the walls of this town, and my assistant today. That is all. It is the reason why she will be here for so long, understood?"_

_"Yes dear… I understand now…"_

"I wish I understood," she told herself.

"OH!" they all heard. Now they heard children screaming. The first yell had been the housemother. The Young Feathers should have been in their dorms at that time of night… and there was the sound of water flowing somewhere.

"THE COCOONS!" the three Haibane shouted together. They flew out of Rakka's room for the hatching wing.

Janice stood on the balcony of their apartment with her back against the railing. Ptolemy saw that she was looking up the side of the building. She closed her eyes and sighed as he placed his hand on her shoulder.

"God, that day is replaying in my mind over and over," she told him. "Seeing her today…"

"I'm sorry, I totally forgot about Rakka," Ptolemy said to her in a whisper. "I should have warned you about her. They aren't supposed to know anything about their lives outside the walls."

"Yes, yes I know," she said. "I just wished… oh I don't know… It would be nice to tell her parents, if they still were up there." She gestured up towards the balcony a few floors above theirs.

Ptolemy looked at his notebook and sighed. "It probably wouldn't matter to them now anyhow… Their divorce after her death was inevitable even if she had lived. It is sad to see such a fine child having to deal with parents that did not care…"

They clung to one another as they left the sounds of the city below and closed the sliding doors to the balcony. It was time to find out what tomorrow's duty would be.

* * *

_The history of mankind is a lie._

_A fiction created to cover the cataclysmic disaster that befell it._

_All knowledge, all memories, anything from before two hundred twenty years ago is false. Before this time, a great civilization had grown and came forth._

_And it was because of my work that history was rewritten. For I was foolish._

_My name is Ptolemy… scientist, philosopher, engineer, dreamer…_

_One day, I dreamed of capturing God's Power for mankind…_

_For a brief moment, I did just that._

_What a fool I was…_

oOo

_**Play the RPG Sadako's Well on AnimeMangaWorld! - Email for the address**_

_**Join the Renmei - Visit the C2 Community and Discussion Forums of Charcoal Feathers of Glie & Surrounding Territories here on FFN!**_

Characters from Haibane Renmei ©2004-2011 Yoshitoshi ABe

Lady Bloodeagle, and references to Before We Had Wings ©2004-2011 S. E. Nordwall - Used with Permission

And a tip of the hat to Jeff Morris for his excellent "Junkman" FanFic

©2004-2011 The Golden Halo Project/DMS

Edit & Remastered 1106.10


	3. Case File

**.**

**2 0 1 1 - R E V I S I O N**

_Original FFN Intro:_

_The hunt is on! In the days after the release of the first Saint, it is discovered that a New Feather has been lost. It must be found before evil finds it._

Original FFN#2056698

Originally Published 9/14/2004

**H A I B A N E - R E N M E I :**

**C O R P O R A T I O N**

Chapter Three

**CASE FILE**

By R. A. Stott

**Case: Un-named Haibane 02-572A4B77e**

_Event: Unscheduled arrival in Glie – Apogee Report missed due to injector failure – subject lost in orbit while in perigee - Subject's original port destination - the walled town of Tripoli - Injector failure responsible for overshoot._

_Results: Because the planting went unreported until now, it is unknown where the subject is, where it landed, or condition that they are in – Situation inconclusive. Groups 2, 7 and 10 are to start a sweep of Glie in search of this lost Haibane. Local Community Watch are to be brought in as well._

* * *

It's a hot summer's day.

I think I'll take a dip in the pool.

A boy is running along the other side from me... he's yelling at me in a childish way. It's too hot to listen... I just want to get myself into the cool water...

Why that brat! He pushed me! He pushed me headlong into the pool! This is the shallow end!

I feel the back of my neck smack the concrete floor of the pool as I flop across the steps out. I see the sun as a million balls of light. My body feels numb. The lights pull away and I feel as if the pool's drain has been opened. I'm being swept down by the water, my soul being dispensed in a torrent of fluid gushing through a pipe.

Darkness... why is it dark? Have I been in the water that long? It feels warmer now. There are bubbles all around me. I see a dim light above me. I feel as if I'm being thrown at that light, as if I were a missile launched from a submarine. It's growing larger. The darkness wanes as the multitude of shimmering objects greet me.

I burst out of the water and into the sky. I'm flying? This is odd... That must have been some bump I got from...

...got from...

...Bump? What bump? What am I thinking? What am I doing over the ocean? Why are there seagulls all around me? Ohhhh... Wasn't I climbing just a moment ago? I'm not climbing any further, am I? I seem to be slowing down... slowing... oh! OooooaaaaaaAAAHH!

I tumble, spin, uncontrollably twist and turn as the wind is making my decent a rough one. I see the water rushing back to greet me – no... no wait, it's a town! Or at least it was a town... I seem to be heading away from it... heading... down! DOWN! oh... oh... OH... OH!

* * *

"The facilities in Glie are overloaded as it is," Ptolemy noted as he read the report. "What is it that keeps drawing New Feathers there and not the main facility in Tripoli?"

"You're the chief scientist, Claude, not I," Plato said as he leaned back from the board table. "You're supposed to be the one with the answers..."

"My answer would be that they shouldn't land here at all," the old man said as he rubbed his glasses with a hanky. "This injector failure just keeps getting deeper and deeper. Glie has four new Haibane, two of which hatched yesterday, and Bakuu of the Seventh Realm launching, the poor town isn't ready for yet another problem."

"It's not that Tripoli could take any of them either, Professor," a man in a doctor's lab coat said. "The few strays that land in the other six zones only slightly relieve the overpopulation problems Tripoli is having."

Ptolemy rubbed his eyes. "Yes, yes Hipp... I didn't mean it to sound as if sending them to Tripoli was the answer... It's just that the facilities we set up there are still more prepared to handle these rapid influxes than the other zones."

"Then maybe its time we updated the facilities in the other zones," a man next to Ptolemy's wife said. "After all, more are falling in the other zones now than ever, and the facilities in Tripoli should be given a well earned rest."

"Virgil is correct," Plato noted from the head of the table, "but now is not the time for that discussion. We must first discover where the lost soul is. Word from upstairs is not good. They confirmed that the soul did not arrive, so that leaves us responsible for its safety, if the basement doesn't acknowledge that it didn't go there."

"Well we know how much they're willing to respond," Dante grumbled.

"Now – now, my dear Dante," Plato quelled him. "You must remain mindful of who they are and who they represent. They can't always help themselves."

"Bull," Dante snorted. "They know. Then again, upstairs can be just as bull-headed..."

Janice giggled. The rest of the table joined her as well.

* * *

What is this? I'm in water again, but this time it's warm and sweet. I seem to be inside some strange ball. Its sides are soft and mushy, and I get large handfuls of stuff in my fingers if I reach out and grab at it.

I hear water flowing somewhere. I can see some light coming through where I grabbed at the walls. It's a dim light – not much more than flashes. But from what I can see, it is otherwise dark on the other side of this wall.

I am tired... oh so tired... I just want to rest... and sleep... I've been here for so long...

* * *

"Docket 472... Case File #02-572A4B77e... Week Two... There still has been no sign of our stray Haibane in Glie," Ptolemy reported to the board at the next meeting. "All groups searching have found nothing. Even the heavy scanning equipment we brought in came up with a big fat zero. We are running out of time as well... normal gestation time for a cocoon is about eleven to thirteen days."

Janice brought up an image of a map of Glie from her computer. "We have concentrated our search in these areas along the re-entry path we thought it may have taken. But I have a theory that it may have been hidden to us because of this landing..." She pointed to the area listed as the site the New Feather that had planted in the southern area had taken. "We saw the approach of this Haibane seedling just after we first regained our system readings after the first injector failure and just before the second time we lost the con. By analyzing the mass-to-landing readings, we find that there is a significant loss of energy as compared to when we regained the readings here."

"And it wouldn't have just burned off?" Dante wearily asked. He looked haggard and worn.

"No, and neither was it a sensor flair. When a seedling lands, all of the energy is put into the landing," Ptolemy noted. "The energy has to transfer into the mass that becomes the Haibane, or only a part would form... Interesting... So what do you think happened?"

She looked at the projected map and the first track. "Well if we plot the original landing spot for the rogue New Feather here in the western woods, and overlay a fast landing that came in roughly fifteen minutes between scans, given that the outage was that long, the angle of trajectory from the Tripoli landing would put it out here somewhere..." She tapped on a part of the map causing a cone-like path to emerge on the picture showing a possible route.

"The WALL!" Dante asked as he jumped in his seat.

Janice stood back. "Well, we can rule out beyond the wall – we would have heard about that," she said. "But anywhere within this area could be the correct planting site, and that includes the wall itself."

Ptolemy sat back. "We just had a saint freed... are you saying we just had another one put back?"

Janice sat down and looked back at the image. "It is a possibility."

* * *

It seems an eternity I've been here, floating in my broth. I wonder when this soup will be done?

OH! That pain again! The last day or so I've had an immense pain in my ears, and the water seems to push against me with a thud. Why? I would like to know, but I'm still so tired... so... tired... OH! OW! OWWW!

The pressure! The pressure is incredible! My ears feel like they're going to burst! OW! What is happening to me!

A crack? I hear something snapping. I hear water flowing. UH! The wall in front of me just vanished! I'm being pushed out! OW!

It's dark... My head hurts... I've landed in more water, but this tastes bad... stale and dank. Something hard brushes up against my hand – a rock? Stone maybe... it seems square... I don't know... I just want... I just want to sleep... Oh god, let me sleep...

Uh... UHH! AHHHHHAHHHHAHHHH!

Oh GOD! The PAIN! THE PAIN! SOMETHING IS SLICING THROUGH MY SPINE! SOMETHING...

* * *

_**"YAAAAAAAAAH!"**_

It was distant, but it rattled through her as if it had been screamed into her ear at point-blank range. Rakka had just returned to her duty in the tunnels. It had taken the few weeks since the release of Bakuu to make sure the tunnel under the wall was safe again. It had been odd to see the now vacant plaque where the saint had launched from. She had been surprised at the lack of any hole or stones dislodged by the flight.

But now, that shriek of pain that had wafted up from the south... she knew what it meant. She remembered screaming in such a manner herself once before, and she had heard it twice in the last week and a half by the twins... when their wings came forth.

But why was it down there with her?

"And why only one scream?" she asked herself. "Why not two? Wasn't that just a memory?"

Her own wings twitched at the thought of her own feathered emergence. The heavy robes snuggled them up against her back, but they still jumped at the memory.

There was something different about this one though. She quickly finished her work on the tag she had been collecting light leaves from and boarded her skiff. She paddled hard.

She remembered the old map that stretched across a wall in the library of Glie. The walled area was almost circular, with a few deviations that caused it to jut back and forth from time to time, and the southern section that stuck out, giving the region a chin. But otherwise, the area that Glie was in was roughly just over ten miles wide and another ten high.

"Hummm... that means that 3:1 ratio... there's about thirty miles of tunnels down here," Rakka told herself.

She stopped rowing for a moment. "Now why did I just remember that?" she pondered.

A twinge from her feathers got her moving again.

* * *

I guess I passed out... oh I'm numb with pain that is racking through my bones. I seem to be resting on some steps I think... it's much too dark to tell. I feel something like a small fish nibbling at my fingertips, but I haven't the strength to lift my hands. My shoulders are throbbing. God, what happened to me?

What the... something just splattered in my face! It feels greasy and... oh, it smells bad!

Uh! I'm falling! Oh, yuck! I fell into that water again... that cool water... oh, it feels so good right now... oh, I think I could just float here a while... ahhh...

* * *

Ptolemy sat back and looked at the girl. She had just been sent down from the 'Attic' to assist them in finding their lost soul. She called herself Katherine, but this was a case of seeing was believing.

"I remember those eyes, Miss Bakuu," he said. "Didn't they at least give you a slight rest after freeing yourself?"

She cleared her throat and stifled a laugh. "Oh, I had an eternity of rest before taking this assignment," she said. The fact that she could be standing there without her wings or halo showing impressed Ptolemy no end.

"Ah yes," he noted, "if time means little to me, it means even less to someone like you, doesn't it? Katherine is it?"

She cleared her throat again. "Yes, they allowed me to use my human name for this. They thought it would be easier on everyone involved..."

"Yes, quite..." Plato mumbled as he sat back in his chair and looked at his friend in the seat beside him. "Do you wish to enter Glie then?"

She nodded. "The sooner the better, sir," she replied with almost a click of her heels. "From what is showing on the readings, the soul is most likely in peril. If what I think happened DID happen, then speed is imperative."

"And what do you think happened?" Dante asked with skepticism. "You do remember that we are supposed to not take sides in this..."

"Speak for yourself, son," Ptolemy snorted. "I've transgressed enough sins in my day - I don't need to transgress any more."

"Yes, but YOU don't have to explain to _them_ why we let only the 'Attic' in to search for this soul," Dante added. "The 'Basement' will probably want someone representing on this as well."

Plato huffed. "We unfortunately are running out of time on this, though," he stated. "We'll deal with any repercussions afterwards. Right now, I'm willing to take this help as is. Any ideas, Miss Katherine?"

She shook her head as she examined a display that was showing the trajectories of those seedings that had landed. "If these readings are correct, the soul could have implanted in the wall around here," she pointed.

"But we've been all over the wall in that area," Dante griped loudly. "Unless you're saying that this 'soul' replaced you as a saint..."

"No, not that," she said. "You're forgetting one thing..."

"And that is," Plato asked with his hands crossed.

She smirked. "The walls have an outside, AND an inside..."

* * *

Rakka had just passed a dog-leg turn in the wall that caused her to change sides as she paddled along. This was the furthest she had ever traveled in the tunnel. The tags in this area were in need of some heavy cleaning – she would have to schedule it...

Her arms were stinging from all the rowing. She had never taken the skiff downstream so far, and even with the current flowing with her, keeping the boat straight took some doing.

"I must be somewhere near the western woods," she said to herself. "Or at least I think I am... I hope I don't get into any trouble..."

She heard what sounded like a cough.

"Hello?" she called out. "Hello? Is anyone out there?" she asked the dark tunnel.

She heard only a few drops of water and a pebble falling into the stream as a reply. She continued to paddle on.

A flash of daylight surprised her. She had not thought there was any other ways into these catacombs. It seemed small – only a crack – it wasn't a proper entry if it was... she pulled out a small notepad she was keeping with her now while she was down there and noted it.

Then she saw another dock. She looked back upstream. Wasn't the entry back at the Temple the only way down here? Sure enough, there was another set of stairs up from the landing. She noted that as well then pushed on.

The tags in this area were in terrible shape. She sighed. A lifetime... a NORMAL lifetime could be spent down here working on just these plaques getting them restored. She decided to ask the old Communicator if she could bring help with her if this was going to be her job.

"Thirty miles of tags... no _SIXTY!_ There are two sides to the walls!" she griped to herself. "Rakka, you're only one Haibane! Huh?"

She was now hearing a sound of water rushing. The tunnel made a slightly harder turn towards the left in front of her. She dragged her pole against the bottom of the canal to slow her approach.

"Oh!" she exclaimed when she saw what was making the noise. A small curved arch broke the wall's flat side and allowed water to flow into the canal. The sound was from where the two flows collided. She gingerly moved into it, having never had to move the skiff through rough turbulence before.

She bounded back to the rear of the raft with the pole to steady it as it jumped up and down through the frothy water. The feeder stream was moving fast, and soon she found herself swiftly moving downstream. She remembered Ptolemy once referring to her raft as that "Six Flags" contraption – maybe this was what he meant.

Another crack in the ceiling caught her attention momentarily, though this time there was streamers of vines and other growth hanging down into the cavernous opening, some of which almost touched her head as she zipped by. She told herself she would have to note that as well, but right now wasn't the time. She was being buffeted about as the water seemed to now be flowing down a hill.

"How would I have heard anyone down here?" she yelped as she dropped down suddenly causing her to fall to one knee. She stumbled back up to her feet again and straightened her hood which had fallen over her head. More tags greeted her as she managed to look around now that the flow of the canal had finally calmed down.

"Where does this water all go?" she pondered as the skiff settled into a glide. She opened her notebook to mark down the growth issue she had discovered.

_**"Uhh..."**_

She jumped to the center of the raft and looked around startled, nearly dropping her pen. Where had that sound come from? It was like...

"...like it was in my head..." she said. Ahead was another crack in the ceiling with vines streaming down, but this time, they did touch the water. She noted in her book. She then stepped to the front of the raft and used her punting staff to brush them aside. She entered a section that the ceiling was lower again and the canal was dark and gloomy.

* * *

A root cellar door behind the farmer's house rattled. A chicken resting on it squawked and ran off as it swung open with a loud rusty screech. Ptolemy and Katherine stepped up the stairs and looked around at the bright sunny spring day that greeted them.

"That was close," he said as he looked back at the angel as she gasped for air. Her parka that she clung to was torn and shredded along the lower back edge. "I've never seen those gremlins act like that before." He opened his phone and punched up the control center.

"I'm not the normal transient through your portal into here," she coughed. She looked back at the woman following behind her. "Are you okay?" she asked.

Janice nodded. "Just the wind knocked out of me. How did that demon catch your wing? You have them hidden..."

Katherine stepped away from them and removed her parka. The simple dress she had chosen hid her well until she stretched. Her wings and halo sprung forth bright and wide as she regained her strength.

"God in heaven!" they heard. The group looked over next to a silo and saw the farmer with a feed bucket gawking at the angel as she preened herself. "Claude, what is she? I've never seen a Haibane with wings like those!" he stuttered.

Ptolemy stepped over to the farmer to settle him as Katherine folded her wings neatly and retracted them into her back. She put her hand on her halo and seemingly pushed it into her head. It became a golden braid that held her long hair back.

"Feel anything?" Janice asked her as she saw the angel peering south.

Katherine nodded. "Someone is down there... down in the tunnel... unshielded..."

Janice looked at her with concern. "Unshielded?"

"When anyone other than us goes down into the tunnel," Ptolemy noted as he returned to their side, "they need to be in a shielded jacket – a modified type one radiation suit."

Janice looked in the direction the angel was staring. "If you're right, and the seedling planted in the inside of the wall, it'll be cooked!"

"Or worse," Katherine said as she started to walk in the direction she felt she needed to go. Ptolemy and his wife followed her as the farmer watched.

* * *

Rakka had been rowing for hours now. Her lamp only gave this section of the canal some illumination, and her halo no longer bounced any light off the roof. The ceiling had risen a bit, so it was less claustrophobic, but the dark mossy walls with the rusty and dirty tags were still all around her. She saw a slight glimmer of light to her left.

"Another landing," she told herself as she moved the raft towards it. It was then she saw what was giving the light there. She gasped and nearly dropped her pole.

The dull fluoresces of the cracked cocoon lit the ceiling and the raft landing in a gray-blue light. She tied the skiff up and stepped onto the stairs up. She slipped on the third step and nearly fell into the water. She looked down and saw a pool of dark greasy fluid she had walked in.

She instantly knew what it was. "Huh! Wing blood!" she gagged at the sight. Her thumb still stung where she had followed Reki's teaching with one of the twins when their feathers had come in. She looked downstream and saw a slick on the surface of the water.

"I've got to get help!" she chirped to herself. She looked around and found stairs that lead upwards, much like those at the dock she used back at the Renmei Temple. She ran up and found a sliding door. Unlike its mate up north though, this one was much harder to move from age and non-use. Once it jerked open, she found the same type of landing and a row of her protective jackets waiting on the other side. She did not wait to remove her own – she ran through the changing room. She needed to find assistance fast.

The outer hatch was heavy and stiff. She pulled it hard twice... a third time... then she kicked it. Finally, in a fit of anger, she grabbed the handle and put her shoulder into the door. She was shocked to find that its frozen wheels easily jumped its hanging track. The sliding door dropped to the ground with a solid thud then slowly fell over with a blast of air that blew her hood off.

The sunlight blinded her briefly. It took her a moment to see just where she was. She had come out of a small adobe hut at the southern most point in Glie. The trees of the Western Woods were to her left and the Southern Farmer's Road was a few yards in front of her, and led away to the right.

"So that's what that little house is," she said to herself as she remembered seeing it when visiting the cocoon that had landed down in the woods earlier. She ran down the path, hoping that someone was on watch duty there.

"EEEK! WHAT IS THAT!" was the answer to her question as Hikari shrieked at the sight of her stumbling into the woods in her protective coat.

"Hikari, it's me!" Rakka yelled back. "I need help! Quickly!"

Midori looked around the spherical cocoon at the approaching girl. Another Factory girl was beside her.

"Who is that?" she asked her fellow Haibane.

"It's Rakka," Midori said with a bit of surprise in her voice. "She's come up from her work under the wall... but what's she doing down here? She works up at the northwest end of the wall by the Temple..."

"What is all that ruckus about?" another person called out. Rakka looked back and found Kana coming up behind her on her bike.

"Kana, I need help! I found a cocoon down in the tunnel in the wall!" she blurted out.

"Whoa! A cocoon down there?" Kana asked as she looked at the wall. "Is it whole?"

Rakka shook her head. "No – no, it's hatched! The New Feather is in the tunnel somewhere! I found wing blood on the steps leading up from where I tied my boat! Have any of the Community Watch been by?"

Hikari looked up the path. "A pair walked by about an hour ago," she said. "They were heading north through the Farmer's Village."

"Gigi, you're the fastest of us," Midori said to the girl beside her. "See if you can catch up to them. I'm sure Kana will want to help here."

Kana got off the bike and handed it to the Factory girl. She pulled her hair back and snapped a braid on to hold it in place. She then leaped on the old bike and pumped hard, speeding it over the hill in a cloud of pebbles and dust.

"Impressive," Kana remarked. "Now if I could just get that old wreck to work as well for me!" She then cracked her fingers and gritted her teeth.

"The New Feather fell into the drink, ea?" she stated more than asked. "Let's go see!"

"Ah... wait a minute!" Hikari yelped. "What about this cocoon?"

"You stay here and watch over it," Midori said. "Nemu said she'd be down here after work to take over soon anyway."

Hikari looked at the gray-white ball and sighed. "Okay," she said with a bit of trepidation. "Good luck..."

The girls returned to the little hut at the bend in the road. Kana was surprised that Rakka had been able to knock the door down as she had. When they arrived in the small room before entering the wall section, she stopped and pointed at the robes.

"Put these on," she told them.

"What? So we can look as geeky as you?" Kana jibed.

"Kana, that's so mean!" Rakka snapped back as she threw the wardrobe in her face. "Put it on! We can't be down there without them on!"

Midori looked at her set. "If we can't be down there without this on, what about a Haibane who hatches down there?"

Rakka shook her head. "I don't know. The sooner we find him or her, the quicker we can get them out of there... come on!"

After fussing over how to get the robes on, they quickly followed Rakka down the staircase. "You work in this?" Kana asked as she looked at how dark it was.

"It's not so bad up by the Temple," Rakka noted as she carried the lamp to guide them. "I think the New Feather went downstream... Watch that spot on the third step from the bottom..."

"What is that thing?" Midori asked as she watched Rakka climb aboard the raft.

Kana on the other hand was looking above them at the cocoon that was hanging from the ceiling. "Damn! Look at where that thing sprouted from!"

Midori was caught off guard when she looked up to see the Haibane egg – she slipped on the greasy spot, tripped down the last few steps and fell across the skiff making Rakka grab for the chain railing to steady herself. The pole dropped overboard but stayed on the surface.

"Are you okay?" Rakka asked as she helped Midori up.

"Ow!" the Factory girl complained. "Eew... that's gross!"

"I'm sorry," Rakka apologized. "I did warn you about that step..."

She glared at the small girl and clamored to her feet despite her hand for help. "Why must we wear these ridiculous outfits?" she griped. "What exactly are they?"

Rakka knocked the water off the poll as she retrieved it from the canal. "The old Communicator said that no one was to come down here without these robes on – it was to protect us from whatever might be down here."

The girls looked at her for a moment. "Whatever might be down here?" they repeated back to her.

Rakka thought about that for a moment. Neither the Professor nor the Communicator really explained just what this 'whatever' really was. Ptolemy did mention that demons were constantly trying to encroach into the area of the saints.

She gave them an evil glare. "_Whatever_ - as in bad things," she bluntly stated.

"Let'um at me!" Kana barked. "I'll show them who's boss!"

"Oh, they're shaking in their boots now, I'm sure!" Midori kidded her as the three of them pushed off.

"Hey! Are you razzing me girl?" Kana snarled.

"KNOCK IT OFF YOU TWO!" Rakka yelled. "This is a holy place!"

Midori and Kana blinked as they stared at her in the dark glow of the lamp. "Holy place?" they both asked.

"Yes, holy!" Rakka repeated. "See those tags along the walls? Those are saints."

Kana swallowed as the dull aura off the rusty tags managed to show through the built up filth that had accumulated on them. Midori leaned over the edge to look at one as they passed.

"They have writing on them," she said now realizing just where they were, and how important it was to show respect there. "What makes them glow like that? Their locked up powers?"

Rakka rowed gently along and nodded. "Yes, and the light leaves that come off them. It's the same material that makes up our halos."

Now Kana was leaning over the edge. "No! Really?" she exclaimed as she stared at the small fragments of gold flaking off the walls. "Think there's enough to coat the bell in the clock tower?"

"Kana! That's not what it's for!" Rakka snapped. "Just keep your eyes open in the water! There's got to be someone down here!"

* * *

Hikari sat nervously tapping her fingers on her knees as she waited for Nemu to arrive or Gigi to get back to her with the Community Watch. Being alone with the cocoon was giving her the creeps.

The sun was getting lower in the west and would soon be behind the wall. That would make it about four in the afternoon. She sighed and rested her head on her knees.

"What was that?" she asked herself as something made a sound behind her. "A bird? I hope that was a bird! Please be a bird!"

The sound came again, but this time, it greeted her with a shower of fluid that arched over and pelted her on the head.

"No! No! NO! Not now! Not now!" she cried as she jumped away from the streams of liquids being ejected out of the cocoon. "Not when I'm all by myself! Noo!"

The cocoon didn't listen to her cries. The side shattered releasing a torrent of material and fluids across the farmer's path.

Hikari found herself a few feet further away than she had started. She looked up and saw a man holding her back from the drenching flow, keeping her from being knocked down by the blast of water.

"M-Mr. Ptolemy!" she called out.

"It is always best to stand at least six feet away from these vessels when you hear the first crack dear," he told her. "Otherwise, they'll launch you across the room... or in this case, across the forest." He looked down on the body that was now on the ground and removed his jacket.

"EEEK! IT'S A BOY!" Hikari screamed. "Why is it that when the Haibane is a girl they come out with a robe, and a boy comes out NAKED!"

Janice took her husband's jacket and covered the New Feather. "That is a legitimate question," she said. "Any ideas Katherine?"

She shrugged. "This was my first witnessing of such an event… all I can say is that my father works in mysterious ways," was her answer. "Were you the only one watching over this cocoon?" she then asked Hikari.

"Umm, no... no, Rakka took them..." she said nervously to the woman she had never seen before. There was just something about her that made her shake.

"Rakka?" Ptolemy asked. "Isn't she on duty in the tunnel right now?"

Hikari nodded to him. "Yes, but she said she had found a cocoon down there and took Kana and Midori back to find the New Feather... She said it had hatched..."

"She must have ridden the canal all the way down to the southern portal," the scientist noted to himself out loud.

"That's not good for the seedling," Katherine said as she rubbed her chin.

"Yes," Ptolemy agreed. "It looks as if you were right... We'd better get some fever medicine ready."

"We have some up at Old Home... why do we need it?" Hikari asked.

Katherine placed her hand on her shoulder. "The Haibane has been inside the wall without shielding," she said.

"It would be as if you were to touch the wall," Ptolemy finished for her, making Hikari understand further – it was forbidden for a Haibane to touch the wall. She had seen what it had done to Rakka when she had touched it. She saw the expression on Ptolemy's face and knew it would be worse. "It also probably explains why it hatched ahead of this one if it planted itself at the same time..." He opened his cell phone and started to key it up.

He then looked down on Hikari. "The other two girls... did Rakka have more suits with her?"

Hikari looked at him funny. "You mean that strange jacket she was wearing? Not with her, no..."

Ptolemy suddenly had a panicked look on his face and turned to head back up the path. "I hope she had more sense than to take those two down there without protection! Come on!"

Hikari looked back at the boy on the ground. Janice seemed to be intending to stay with him, so she started to follow the others when she heard the bell on Kana's bike ring, and Gigi came flying over the hill. She could see the canes of the Community Watch starting over the rise.

"Stay there, Hikari!" Ptolemy called back. "You two, follow me!" he then barked at the two watchers.

As they approached the small entry hut, they found Nemu looking at the opened door.

"Professor Ptolemy!" she exclaimed. "What's going on? Is there something wrong?"

He planted his hands on his knees and drew in as many hard breaths that he could. "The usual – everything has to happen all at once my dear! I need you to go back up to the farm and see if you can borrow a wagon... your cocoon has hatched and my wife is caring for the New Feather."

"Oh! Yes Professor!" she yelped and started to go.

"Wait! Wait! There's more my dear... hold your feathers!" he gasped for air. "Have him ready a second cart if he has one... Just let him know that I requested it. He should be easy enough to deal with if he gets cranky..."

He then noticed that Nemu was staring at the woman that was with him. It was as if she were transfixed with her.

"Ah, yes... Nemu, Katherine... Katherine, Nemu..." he quickly introduced. "GET GOING!"

"Oh, ah... yes sir!" she blinked and started off.

Ptolemy looked at the angel beside him. "You do have a presence with them, don't you?"

She looked behind her at the two Community Watch members. They seemed unwilling to get any closer than a few yards back, and every time she would look their way, they'd bow their heads.

"Oh gotenhimmel!" Ptolemy grunted, which caused Katherine to giggle. He then started to sign for them.

_"I want you two to stand by here as we go down and check this out,"_ he gestured with his hands. _"We will probably need the travel kit for the canal boat."_

The left one nodded and walked behind the small hut and opened another hatch. It exposed a ladder down that lead to a second underground path. Ptolemy rubbed his chin and nodded.

"Ah yes, I forgot that this one has that maintenance shaft to the southern slues gate..." he said aloud. "That's probably where they're going..." He then signed to them _"Are there any more suits available down there?"_

The watcher nodded yes.

"Good – you need to wear one," he told Katherine much to her surprise. "You might be an angel, but you also have to deal with the same energy problems the Haibane have down there."

"I didn't think you cared!" she kidded him. The look she got back told her that was the wrong crack to say to this old man.

"My dear, I care about you all as if you were all my own children," he snapped at her as he climbed down the hut's second entryway.

* * *

My head is throbbing... but I can hear voices... and something else... it sounds like the water is rushing a bit ahead of me...

Someone has been talking to me all this time as well... telling me about freedom... how much fun an independent spirit is... some sort of propaganda... it almost sounded like someone recruiting me... I can't tell... there's too much noise and I'm not sure they're for me anyway...

Oh god I hurt... my head... oh my head... at least whatever was tearing at my shoulders has stopped. But my head still is... ahhhhgh!

NO! I will not listen! I will not LISTEN! GO AWAY! GO AWAY!

* * *

_**"GO AWAY!"**_

The girls jumped at the yell.

"Take the lantern," Rakka said as she pushed the skiff over to the left. "Shine it ahead!"

Kana leaned out over the edge to better the lamp's light downstream. The tags on the wall seemed to be crumbling here, with little luster to them and even less light leaves to illuminate the area. Something evil seemed to be creeping in from underneath them.

"I feel cold," Midori shivered. "What is it with this area?"

Rakka looked at the walls she was rafting past. "This must be where the protection is at its least... AH!"

Kana looked back at her friend. "Rakka, what is it?"

Rakka nearly dropped the pole as she grabbed her cowl. "Something is in my head!" she yelped. "OW! OW! Help ME!"

_**"You will leave her alone!"**_ Midori and Kana heard before they could do anything for Rakka. It was the same voice that had called out before. They looked ahead of themselves and saw a body floating in the dark water nearing a grill in the wall.

"It's him!" Rakka said as she stumbled to the front of the raft. She flipped the poll around to get the hook end out over the water. She bumped the walls with it enough to spin them so that the opening in the chain railing was facing the direction they were going.

"Are you okay?" Midori asked as she could see the young Haibane sweating profusely. "You don't look very well," she added as she assisted her with the poll.

"I'm fine," Rakka said as she gently placed the hook under the boy's arm and pulled him towards them. Kana reached over the edge and grabbed his other arm and pulled with all she could.

"Hold him Kana," Rakka said as she removed the poll and joined her with Midori to haul him aboard.

"Oh man, look at his wings!" Kana said as she sat back exhausted. "It looks like the fish were nibbling at them!"

"The wing blood probably attracted them," Midori said as she sat back as well and examined the boy's feathers. "Look, he's caught one," she added as she removed a small fish that was fervently attached to his right wing. She tossed it overboard.

Kana laughed. "Ha! We'll have to call him the Fisherman then!" she giggled. She then saw that Rakka was looking at the grill the water was running through. "Hey, Rakka? You okay?"

Rakka sat staring, no longer sweating hard, but still taking deep breaths. "Can you see it?" she asked.

Midori cocked her head. "What? See what?"

Rakka touched the moss covered iron bars of the slues gate with her gloved hand. "Daylight," she said.

Kana sat up and looked harder. "Oh yea," she said. "At least the sun hasn't gone down yet... I'd hate to get him out of here in the dark."

"No, you don't get it..." Rakka said as she looked down on the boy then back at the wall.

"You're being stranger than normal, Rakka," Midori said with a smirk. "What don't we get?"

She looked down the tunnel the water was flowing in. "This is a way out," she said.

Kana looked closer, as did Midori. "A way what?" they both asked.

"Don't you see?" she pointed out. "That's daylight from beyond the wall... outside. The water enters these tunnels up north and midway and exits here... and goes out... just like the birds..."

They sat and watched the flow of water. Sounds wafted back up the drain tunnel towards them from beyond. Something screeched. Something else made a loud blaring sound, though muffled by the water's flow. There were a series of pops. There was the noise of things being moved against the ground. There was a rumble of machinery.

Then there was silence.

"That is one strange tunnel," Kana noted. She watched Rakka lean over to the boy and place her hand on his forehead to move his blond hair back. There was a bruise there.

"Must be where he hit his head on the stone," she said quietly.

Midori sighed. "So, how are we going to get him out of here?" she asked. "Or are you going to row us back to that landing against that flow of water?"

Rakka looked at the slues again. There were four grilled openings, and the raft was being pressed against the first one quite well. The water was coming from both the western side and the eastern side, and was converging around them.

"First... we must agree to never tell anyone about these... exits in the wall..." Rakka said as she stood up and took her poll in hand.

"What?" Kana barked. "Not tell anyone? Why?"

Midori nodded. "I understand... you don't want another Reki, right?"

Rakka sighed in agreement. "It's for the best. I understand why some would want to fly over the walls, but if they knew there was a way under it..."

Kana finally got her meaning and sighed as well. "You've got a point... least the temptation..."

"Right," Rakka agreed. "Besides, this area seems the least protected by the wall's energy." She reached out with the hooked end of the poll to snag some stones as she started to drag them away from the slues.

Kana and Midori stood up as well, though Kana kept looking down on their rescued Haibane.

"You know, we should have brought another coat for him," she said. "Why is it that boys get plopped out buckers?"

No one had a chance to answer as Kana suddenly had a suit tossed into her face. She dragged the clothing off her head. "Hey! It's you!" she harped.

"Yes, it's me and always will be me," Ptolemy said from a service hatch across from the slues. "Toss me the rope. You're never going to make it back to the landing."

"Where is the New Feather?" they then heard as another head appeared in the hatch's opening. A woman in the same robes they wore was watching them as Ptolemy dragged them in closer to be tied up. "Oooh, this place is cold!" she then grunted.

"Bakuu!" Rakka cheerfully called out. Kana looked at her then the woman and grimaced.

"The saint that nearly sliced you in two!" she yelped as she took a few steps towards the rear of the raft.

"Angel now," she said as she climbed aboard the skiff. "You can call me Katherine." She bent down and prayed over the boy. "He's a strong one," she said.

"He saved me," Rakka blurted out causing the girls to look at her oddly. She lowered her head. "Something evil was trying to get into my mind, but he told them to go away."

"Really?" Katherine asked her. She turned and looked up at Ptolemy as she gestured to her gloved hand.

"You're protected... go ahead," he said.

She removed the gauntlet and placed her hand on the boy's forehead next to the bruise. "Indeed, he did just that... fascinating... he is quite strong. It is quite fortunate that he fell into the holy waters. They might not be as strong down here, but they protected him nonetheless."

"Good," Ptolemy said as he opened his phone. When he pressed the button on its side, the chirp it made reverberated throughout the catacombs loudly, making the girls wince. "Ptolemy here – recovery complete... out," was all he said. He slapped it shut and gestured to them to follow him out of the canal.

"But how are we going to lift..." was all Midori got out before Katherine hoisted the boy over her shoulder and climbed off the boat.

"I think we're going to follow that lady!" Kana grinned as she scurried after her.

At the surface it took Ptolemy a few moments to get the Community Watch members to help lift the boy off Katherine's shoulders at the ladder as they still did not want to approach her. Nemu had arrived with two carts and the farmer in tow.

"FEW!" the farmer snorted as he waved his hand over his face. "Have you been fishing?"

"Yea!" Kana sharply shot back. "And we caught a LIVE one!"

"Want us to hang him from a tree limb so you can have a picture taken with your catch?" Ptolemy kidded her. He stood back and watched as Katherine removed her robes and handed them to him so she could examine the boy closer.

"You two give your robes to the Community Watch," he told Kana and Midori. "Rakka, give yours to the watch member who comes here to take your raft back north."

Rakka looked perplexed for a moment as she removed her over-garments. "Okay," she said with a bit of puzzlement.

"Busy day, hasn't it been?" Nemu asked as she tapped her on the shoulder. "Now we have to set up two rooms..."

"Two rooms?" Kana yelped. "The cocoon!"

"Burst just after you left," Nemu smiled. "Now we have two new boys to deal with."

"Well, we'll see just where this boy goes after he recovers," Ptolemy said. "I think we'll have to take him to the hospital first and have him checked out, after Kat here does her thing that is..."

The angel glanced at him at the reference to Kat and smiled.

"I suggest that everyone stand back," she informed them. "I must purge any of the influences that are ravaging inside him."

The girls were shocked to see the Community Watchers suddenly take another few steps back then fall to their knees and bow at her. But that was nothing next to the blast of wind that struck them.

Katherine had her hands on the boy's head and chest as her wings flew out of her back and pointed to the sky. Her halo released her hair and took its proper place overtop her.

She closed her eyes and crossed her hands over her chest. She drew a deep breath and returned them to the boy. She then fed whatever energy out of him that was contaminating his soul and shot it skywards.

Ptolemy stepped up to her and raised a small cup and inserted it into the stream much to the displeasure of the Community Watchers, one of which grabbed his staff and nearly stood up to smack the man for such blasphemy. The badge that Ptolemy showed him put him back on his knees. The scientist pulled the glowing substance from the stream and capped the container. He then inserted it in a device and shook it hard as Katherine watched.

It turned from a bright yellow to a blue. He nodded and she released the boy.

"Wow," chorused Kana and Midori.

Ptolemy looked at them. "You never saw this, got that?" he said as he placed the container in his pocket and pointed at Kana, then Midori, Nemu, Rakka, and finally the Farmer. "This was a simple rescue. There was no angel here, got that?"

"Heh, we're just full of secrets today, aren't we?" Midori said then covered her mouth as she looked over at Rakka.

Ptolemy looked back at the still opened doorway down to the waterway and sighed. "Yes, the slues gates lead out," he said much to their surprise. "But you wouldn't like where they lead, and I would hardly suggest it ever. But you were wise if you agreed to keep it a secret."

"You knew we heard the sounds?" Rakka asked him.

He gave a slight laugh. "Those hatchways act like amplifiers... I probably heard it better than you did. It's one of the reasons why the Scar's Village is so far to the northwest, and nowhere near either of the slews gates. There is less enticement up there than there would be down here."

Rakka shook her head. "I'm sorry... I was thinking more of the Haibane and the people who live here... like Reki..."

Ptolemy placed his hand on her shoulder and leaned down. "If you had not saved Reki, she would have become a Scar... they are more at risk than those around you."

Rakka held her breath at the thought. She then saw Katherine slumping to the ground and rushed to her side.

"I'm sorry," the angel said. "That was more than I expected. I'll be all right in a moment..."

"You said you were taking him to the hospital," Kana stated. "I thought the hospital was off-limits to the Haibane."

The professor snapped a glare at her. "Bull... who told you that?" Ptolemy asked.

"The head doctor there," Midori said agreeing with Kana's complaint. "We had one of our guys hurt once that needed stitches. He only took us after the old Communicator told him to do so."

The phone quickly came out. "Hypocrites please," Ptolemy asked it. "Hipp? Claude... Hey, we're going to need your help at the Glie Hospital... how soon can you be in here? Ah, good... and when you get here, would you kindly remind the head surgeon just who he works for? Great... See you then." He slapped the phone shut and smirked.

"It sometimes pays to know the guy whose oath the doctor's sworn to uphold," he grinned.

* * *

That night was another rush of work over new Haibane and halo making for Hikari and the halo-mold. The town seemed in an uproar when Ptolemy brought the New Feather in for help at the hospital. But most of all, the upsurge in Haibane in general was the talk of the town. Some of the words used even shocked Rakka. But for some reason it didn't surprise her – the town and surrounding land had been put through much lately.

Hipp had come through a special gate in the hospital itself, which only made some of the grumbling worse. Now he was in charge of the care of the new lad who had survived in the caverns below the wall for nearly two days after hatching. He had also reprimanded the chief surgeon as Ptolemy had asked and reminded him of his duties to the community.

"Is it me, or has the town suddenly become less friendly today?" Kana asked. Rakka could only nod in reply. When they left the hospital there was a large gathering in the town's square.

"What are you doing here at this time of night, Haibane?" someone in the crowd yelled.

Kana stared at the location the cry came from. "What!" she shouted.

"Yea," another voice yelled, "why aren't you cooped up in your run down old school? Most of you aren't being very helpful around here these days!"

"HOW DARE YOU!" a woman's voice shouted from the opposite side of the square. Nemu recognized it at once as being that of Sumika the librarian. "You seem to forget just why they are here... why WE are here!"

"Sumikaaaa..." Nemu gritted her teeth as she stepped in her direction. Something red flew through the air at the librarian splattering across the ground near her feet. It had been a tomato.

"HOW CAN I FORGET THAT!" the man who had shouted first yelled back. "You're just a Halo Lover anyway!"

"What is your problem!" Kana shouted, now livid with rage and being held back by Rakka and Nemu. "What have we ever done to you!"

"This is OUR hospital, not yours you winged freak!" the man screamed. "We don't get much here, but at least THAT was ours! Now one of your kind has been admitted! NO WAY! THAT IS OUR HOSPITAL!" He tossed another tomato which missed them, but from the crowd's reaction, had caught someone.

"Since when, Mr. Lawrence?" Ptolemy asked as he started to wipe the tomato off his chest. "The Corporation did not set up this hospital just for the humans here in Glie. So where did you get the idea that it was just for you?"

Rakka looked up at the old man in awe. He did not show any anger, and his voice was calm and collected, even though he had just been pelted by a tomato. And he knew the man by name... how could he?

"Care to answer me that Mr. Lawrence?" he finished as he cleaned the splatter from his glasses.

The man stepped back, speechless at the man he had just hit with the tomato, and the fact that he was talking right to him in return.

"Well, I can answer that for you," Ptolemy continued, almost coldly now, which shook Rakka to the core. "We did not set this hospital up for just the humans – there has always been a Haibane specialist on call here, and there will always be one. And as for this sudden upsurge of bigotry, that can not, and WILL NOT be tolerated here in Glie." He nodded. Rakka turned and looked in the direction he was glaring and gasped.

The man had two of the Community Watch on either side of him who scooped up both of his arms and whisked him away.

"Does anyone else have an issue to discuss?" he then added. The crowd stepped back and quickly began to disperse, not anxious to further enrage The Corporation's representative on the matter.

"Is he going up to the Scar Village?" Rakka asked quietly.

Ptolemy patted her on the shoulder and shook his head. "No, he's off to see my 'brother' who will give him a reminder on good habits here in Glie." He smiled and shook both Rakka and Kana. "I wanted to thank you two, and Midori as well, but she seems to have headed home already... what you three did was superb. Well done saving our lost New Feather."

"Will he be okay?" Rakka asked.

"Oh yes," Ptolemy replied. "He suffered a concussion, probably from the fall from the cocoon... and a concussion is still a concussion, be you human or Haibane... he needed to be brought to the hospital. He should be fine in the next few days. No halo until then though, so tell Hikari to hold off a bit on his."

"We still haven't figured out a name for him either," Kana noted.

"Oh, he's got one..." Ptolemy laughed. "His cocoon dream was flowing through water, so we named him Koi – for the fish."

"We can always put a hook in him and call him the catch of the day!" Kana laughed.

Ptolemy shook his head. "Best you all should be getting back to Old Home. I've got to collect my wife and our friend from the attic and head home as well now that this ruckus is over with."

"I hope this _is_ over with," Rakka said as she watched the milling crowd. "Why would a simple event like this turn the town folk against us like that?"

Ptolemy looked at the crowd. "You may as well ask why we breathe," he told her as he rubbed her head. He looked towards where Nemu was helping her friend clean tomato splatter off her shoes. "Unfortunately, humanity still has within itself a streak of irrational thinking that defies logic or reason. But then again, so does all life for that matter. Keep in mind that the humans here have given up so much to care for the Haibane that sometimes irrational thoughts will rise."

"They have?" Rakka asked looking around at those nearby.

"They have given up their freedom my dear," he explained. "They may not realize it, since everyone here was born and raised here, but they have. They do gain one advantage by being here in Glie, though... They will never become Haibane."

Rakka and Kana stared at the old man. "What do you mean?" Kana first barked then lowered her voice as Rakka hushed her. "Are you saying that it's true then? That we had lives before we came here? That we were once humans just like them?"

Ptolemy smiled. "Whoever said that you weren't human? You Kana have O positive blood... if I were in need of a transfusion I would be able to use it if needed. There are remarkably few things different between your body and mine, save the wings and the cranial energy band."

Kana looked at him with a cockeyed expression. "Cranial what?" she asked.

He reached over and gave her halo a flick of his finger which made it ring.

"It does come in handy for us – each one of you gives off a different frequency, and the halos do make excellent antennae," he said as he turned to re-enter the hospital.

"We are still humans?" Rakka asked him before he opened the door.

Ptolemy looked down at her. "No my dear, you are Haibane. Within you is still a human, with all that brings you – feelings, will, soul, the lot. Outside, you are Haibane – a vessel that contains all that penned up energy waiting to be set free by your day of flight. Your guides to that day are the feathers on your back and the ring over your head. Remember to never loose them."

He then entered the hospital leaving the girls to consider his words.

* * *

**Case: Haibane Koi, soon to be of Old Home, Glie zone, File 02-572A4B77e**

"So, you say that the situation with Mr. Lawrence was only an aberration?" Plato asked at the next board meeting.

Ptolemy shook his head. "No, it is a sign to me that we may need to look at the infrastructure to the zones again. Virgil was correct before – now would be a good time to look into it. If the influx of Apogee Reports is correct, then we should not waste time."

Plato nodded and brought out a large pamphlet which he dropped on the table with a thud. "Virgil gave this to me last week. It's a good read," the chairman said as he pushed it towards his chief scientist.

Rakka sat on the porch outside the visitor's quarters and stared out into the blue sky. A few days before, she had been there as well as she watched the Community Watch carry her deflated boat by in a cart to return it to the northern end of the canal. A message they had left on the note-board had told her that she would have a few days off while repairs were made to it. They had also taken her notes she had left of the holes in the wall she had witnessed during her journey down the waterway and on how the tags further down needed attention soon.

She had been restless in bed these last few days. The sounds that she had heard through the slues gate were playing on her mind, especially the strange honking sound. The night before, she had dreamt about falling from high up and hearing that very sound coming from vehicles as she approached them. She shivered at remembering that dream and stepped back into the room to drink some of her tea.

"Oh, hello," she said as she saw she wasn't alone.

"Um, hi," the boy said as he stood across the table from her. His bandage on his forehead was making his new halo lean a bit to one side.

"It's... umm... it's good to see you up Koi," Rakka said as she fidgeted with her feet, not sure what to say.

"Heh, yea," Koi said rubbing the back of his neck. "I guess getting beat up on your hatching day isn't normal for the Haibane, ea?"

"I don't know - being dropped ten feet into cold water isn't normal hatching procedures!" Kana butted in as she rushed into the room to grab some scones and a bottle that Nemu had left her. "See ya Rakka! See ya Koi!" She then exited as fast as she had entered. A moment later, the sound of the scooter revving out of the courtyard could be heard.

"Hey!" they then heard. Rakka looked out the window at Kana as she was sitting before the tote-board to turn her tile around. "Don't forget about this note!" she yelled back. "The workmen will be in to start the rebuilding of the north wings this afternoon!"

"Okay!" Rakka called back. "See you tonight!"

"You two seem to do well here," Koi said as they watched Kana roar off. "I hope I can get used to this place as well as you two seem to have."

Rakka laughed. "Oh, it wasn't easy for me at first... but the place does grow on you."

She felt her hand be touched by his and she looked at him startled. She saw him smile and blush.

"I just wanted to thank you for rescuing me," he said. "I'm told that if you three hadn't found me when you did, I would have probably died... or whatever happens to Haibane..." He reached over and gave a kiss to her cheek. He then returned to the table and sat down holding his head.

"Sorry... still a little light headed," he said as he held the bandage.

Rakka sat beside him. "That's okay... I wanted to thank you too."

Koi looked at her from under his hand. "Me? Why me?"

Rakka could not hide her own blushed face as she took his free hand in hers and swallowed. "You told the demons to get out when they were attacking me on the boat. You were very forceful," she said.

Koi closed his eyes and shook his head. "I don't remember any of that," he said. "I remember my cocoon dream - I remember the cocoon breaking open - the next thing I remember was the hospital room and someone wrapping my head."

Rakka smiled. "Tell you what, how would you like a nice cup of tea?" she asked.

"Got any coffee?" he asked. When he peered out from under his hand she was giving him an odd 'no' look. He laughed. "Tea is fine then."

* * *

Katherine stood before her senior. "Is that your entire report?" he asked her.

"Sir?" she replied in a half questioning manner. "Is there something I left out?"

He sat back and crossed his hands drumming his fingertips together. "How did it feel returning to the place that you were freed from?" he asked her. "Did you sense any of your fellow saints?"

Katherine shook her head. "I was at the southern most section of the cavern, sir," she reported. "Those tags in that area seemed inundated in leaches and demons. In fact, one attempted to attack one of the Haibane, Rakka I believe she's named."

He leaned forward. "Indeed?" he asked. "How did she avoid the attack?"

Katherine cleared her throat. "She says that she was helped by the boy she was rescuing – he drove the demon out with his mind, but I think it was because he was in direct contact with the holy water..."

"Exactly," her superior said. "He seems to be able to channel the strength of the water. Koi is his Haibane name, correct?"

"Yes sir," she replied. "But I removed the memory of him countering the demon..."

"Then I suggest that you return that memory to him," the man said. "It would seem he might be just what we were looking for. Do you not agree?"

"Sir!" she answered him. She turned and walked out of the room.

She leaned up against a wall outside her superior's office and sighed.

"But will he be able to do any good before his own day of flight?" she pondered. "And if he does, what will the opposition think about that?"

She turned and walked down the white corridor and faded from view.

oOo

_**Play the RPG Sadako's Well on AnimeMangaWorld! - Email for the address**_

_**Join the Renmei - Visit the C2 Community and Discussion Forums of Charcoal Feathers of Glie & Surrounding Territories here on FFN!**_

Characters from Haibane Renmei ©2004-2011 Yoshitoshi ABe

©2004-2011 The Golden Halo Project/DMS

Edit & Remastered 1106.10


	4. N D E

**.**

**2 0 1 1 - R E V I S I O N**

**-O-**

**H A I B A N E - R E N M E I :**

**C O R P O R A T I O N**

Chapter Four

**N D E**

By R. A. Stott

FFN #2088681

First Published 10/9/2004

It had been raining most of that day, so normally standing outside on the balcony of their apartment would not be for the best seeing that the ones above hers would drip down on theirs. But Janice had been having trouble sleeping as of late. Ever since seeing that child while in Glie - Ever since working beside her and being with her again – The nightmare of that day a year and a half ago kept playing back in her sleep, torturing her soul and making her miserable. The rain was actually soothing to a point.

Lightning flashed, illuminating the other buildings. She closed her eyes and allowed the water to flow over her face.

She saw the child. She was standing on the railing with her arms outstretched as birds called to her. She remembered standing in shock seeing who it was, her voice silenced for a brief moment as she beheld the sight above her. The child teetered and swayed as the breeze caught her dress.

"NO!" she yelled finally. "DON'T…"

It had already been too late by the time she had called out. The girl had leaned too far forwards and momentum had taken over. She saw her sleeves ruffle as she became one with the wind, her hair swaying wildly and her dress snapped and popped. She had closed her eyes as she descended, though she briefly glanced at Janice as she plunged.

Rakka sat up. She looked to her left, just as she had in her dream. There she saw Kuu's frogs. They all seemed to be looking back at her.

"I saw… I saw a woman," she whispered to herself as she clung to her bed sheets.

Janice entered her apartment and found a towel being handed to her by her husband.

"I'm sorry to do this to you, but we have a situation," he told her. She noticed he was holding his cell phone. She nodded and took the towel.

Plato sat back in his chair and huffed. "Normally, we don't take too much about these situations, but this one hits way too close to the mark to be ignored. Dante?"

He cleared his throat and straightened his collar of his dress shirt. "I know this will sound odd," Dante started at the hastily called board meeting, "but have any of you seen the TV program 'Tales of Mystery and Imagination' on cable?"

Those present numbly shook their heads. "It is not my standard faire, no," Ptolemy interjected as he placed a steaming cup of coffee under his wife's nose.

"Well maybe it should be," Plato grumbled. Ptolemy gave him a slightly confused look as he sat down.

"Yes," Dante sheepishly replied as if even he wasn't sure if he wanted to subject himself to such a show on a regular basis. "We are up at this ungodly hour because of today's segment which will be repeated in less than fifteen minutes."

"You couldn't have just set your VCR to record it?" a half-asleep Hipp snorted as he clung to his java like it was the only thing keeping him alive.

Dante shook his head. "I'm sorry… I know that we could have taken this in the morning, but because of some information I found yesterday which was then corroborated by this show, we felt the need for urgent action to be taken."

"So just what has happened?" Janice asked as she sipped the brown fluid. "You're acting as if someone breeched the walls of one of the holy sites."

"In a way, someone has," Plato said as he pulled out a newspaper from under the table – worst yet, a supermarket tabloid – which he plopped down in the middle for all to see.

"IS THIS HEAVEN?" the large sensationalized letters read in a garish red. "ANGELS LIVE AMOUNG US?" another boldly asked. Behind the text was a computer-generated image of a girl standing before a beat-up Spanish villa. She had a halo over her head and the worst looking pair of drawn wings on her back. Below her in extremely small type read "Artist rendering of an eyewitness account of this strange land."

"Humm… Brittany Spears to have child with six eyes… fascinating," Hipp cracked as he read the smaller boxes that edged the cover of the tabloid.

Ptolemy looked at the girl on the cover though. Janice saw her as well.

The girl was Rakka. But Janice had seen that picture before. It was of the child Rakka had come from – the one who had fallen from the balcony. Somehow this paper had found her image and used it as the body of the angel.

"Where did they get this photo?" her husband asked before she could. The stern look on his face told her that he was just as upset as she felt at the misuse of her image in such a manner.

"We are checking on it," Plato said. "I have Sun Tzu sending out some of his spies to see where they got that picture. That is her, isn't it?"

"That is a school photo," Janice whispered. "It sat in a picture frame as you entered their apartment." She noticed the look on Plato's face – he had expected her husband to answer, not her. "I used to baby sit her," she explained.

"I'm sorry," the director said. "I did not know you knew her before she arrived in Glie sector."

Ptolemy folded the paper. "We knew the risks," he said. "We knew that we may someday see someone we knew inside the zones. I've personally known four of them so far. It's never easy to deal with. But with proper guidance, I know they will be going to a better place."

"Yes, but why is it that this one Haibane seems to be drawing such attention?" Dante asked as he turned on the television and started a VCR recording.

Ptolemy sat back. "We know that Rakka is special, just like Sol is in Tripoli and Fawn is in Lucerne. We've been told so by your own reports from the attic. We also know she may stay in Glie for possibly the longest time any Haibane has ever done in ANY of the zones… So why _is_ she drawing such attention on the outside?"

Dante unfolded the paper and turned it towards himself. "The reasons may have been only a fluke," he said. "The reason for the article wasn't because of this girl, but because of a rash of stories filtering out to the media. This article is centered on an Irene Dunbar, a woman who had an NDE… a near death experience. I had brought this up to the director's attention yesterday when I saw this tabloid in the supermarket. We were planning to discuss this at this morning's meeting, but when I was clicking around the dial last night, this show came on…"

The television was busy showing images of angels flying about over a town in a hokey outlandish style of the average over-sensationalized broadcast. The announcer was the typical deep voiced talent that these shows have. Janice almost burst out laughing until they started to hear his comments.

"In years past, the stories of near death experiences have come and gone and usually dealt with people seeing a light at the end of a tunnel – seeing family and friends long missing – seeing heaven and angels before being drawn back to their Earthly bodies. But recently a new story has been emerging – a story of a land where angels and humans live together – not in heaven, not in hell… but in between…"

Claudius and Janice stared at the television.

"The first known descriptions of this 'between world' started to be heard around ten years ago, but were dismissed as the dilutions of a mind on the verge of death. But recently, the author Thomas Geotten published his controversial book 'Earthbound Angels' where he takes his years of research and compares them…"

An image of the author replaced the pictures of ghostly images wandering down a school hallway. "I too would have been skeptical about this, if I had not read so many reports of these situations people were finding themselves in. Not here, but not there either… a world of the sin bound… but not purgatory as we have been taught or envisioned…"

"Did he just say sin bound?" Ptolemy asked.

"Descriptions have been of a world of repentance to a world of blissful solitude," the author continued. "The most recent case of Miss Irene Dunbar seems only to confirm my theory of this strange mid-world of angels and humans."

"It looks like it is this Miss Dunbar that started this story rolling," Plato interjected. "Sun Tzu reported to me that the book Mr. Geotten published has been out now for two years, but did not do much until this happened."

The author was replaced by a woman in her late 30s. She had a round face and a pair of the worst looking glasses humanly possible to wear.

"Yes, that's an Irene Dunbar," Hipp commented.

"Why do they always look that way?" Dante pondered.

"Gentlemen," Ptolemy grunted. "Hold yourselves."

"Ah had been in an auto accident," she spoke in a heavy southern American accent. "When Ah thought Ah had woken up from it, Ah was in this strange place… it looked to me like a school… Ah remember seeing a girl. Ah did not recognize her… but she had on old clothes, and she had a halo and these tiny wings…"

Janice winced. "Whoa, this is hitting way too close to home…"

Ptolemy perched his head on his thumbs. "Not completely… let's just see…"

"Ah could not speak to this person, though she seemed quite pleasant," Irene continued. Ah followed her around as she moved about this school. It was dark, and the building seemed very old."

"Were you walking with her?" an off screen interviewer asked.

"Ah could have sworn Ah was, but other times Ah could have sworn Ah was floating," Irene said.

"Ah," Ptolemy said and scribbled notes down.

"Did you go anywhere else with this girl?" the interviewer asked Irene.

"Yes, yes we did…" she droned. "She left the convent or school or whatever it was and we went to a town nearby… that was when Ah saw the others… the humans. They seemed aware of the girl and of other angels walking among them… they even worked with each other…"

"Worked?" the interviewer repeated.

"Just how long was this lady there?" Janice asked.

"Yes, they did seem to be doing chores and stuff," Irene surmised.

The interviewer coughed and cleared his throat. "Could you hear anything they were saying?"

Irene scratched her head and thought about that a moment while those watching held their breaths. "Not really," she replied. "It was more like if Ah was listening to them as if Ah were under water… it all came out muddled." There was a collective sigh of relief from those around the table. That was there was relief until…

"Miss Dunbar then allowed us to bring in a hypnotist," the deep throated voice returned, "to see if we could unlock any further clues to where she may have been."

"This should be ugly…" Dante said through gritted teeth.

"Irene," the hypnotist started in a hushed tone of voice, "when you were in this world of angels and humans, do you remember any names mentioned of those who were around you?"

Dunbar was not shown on the television at this point, only a still image of her with a superimposed image of a cassette playing back her responses. "R-r-ray… Rachel… the first angel Ah met was Rachel…" she stammered in a drowsy voice. There was a Norma Ah think… Karen…"

Dante sighed. "At least she didn't get those right…"

Ptolemy shot him a glaring look. "What do you mean? She nearly hit them on the nose! She just proved to me she really was there!"

Dante scratched his head and looked puzzled. "Huh?" Ptolemy snorted.

"You're the poet, Dante, not me! Use your phonic skills." Ptolemy flipped his pad's page and wrote it out for him to see. "Rachel – Rakka… Norma – Nemu… Karen – Kana… We are just fortunate that even if she did get the names correctly, no one on this side of the walls would recognize them!"

"It might have been better if she had said them," Plato noted. "Since she used recognizable names, there will surely be those who will insist that they know the person she was referring to."

* * *

Rakka sneezed.

"Bless you!" Hikari said.

"My ears are tickling me," she added as she rubbed them.

"Someone must be talking about you," Kana kidded her as she dunked her cookie in her tea. "Where's Koi? Isn't he with you?"

Rakka snapped a look at Kana. "Why would you say that?" she nearly yelped.

"Oh, the way you two seem to be around each other lately," Kana ribbed her. "He obviously likes you."

"Kana!" Rakka whined. "It's not like that! We're just friends! He simply is in need of learning to be a Haibane!"

Kana leaned forwards and laughed. "I was only kidding, Rakka… lighten up!"

She stomped her foot at her uncouth friend. "You can be so mean!" she snorted and tromped out of the room. She left the main building and stopped in the arched exit out of the compound and sighed. The morning air was sweet with the smells of spring flowers growing in the field beyond the wall of Old Home.

She was about to take a step forwards when she noticed a new message on the sign-in board. She read it once… then again…

"Oh no!" she gasped and yanked it off the wall and ran back into the compound. "KOI! KOI!" she shouted as she looked at all the vacant windows looking back at her. Kana and Hikari stepped out onto the balcony of the guest room and peered down at her.

"See?" Kana joked. "She can't get enough of him!"

"Kana, please!" Hikari scolded her as she saw Rakka waiving the message about. "What is that Rakka?" she called down.

"It's a message from the Haibane-Renmei for Koi!" Rakka called back. "They want him to move to Abandoned Factory while the renovations to the north wings are done!"

Kana snorted. "Well that does kind of make sense, doesn't it?" she said. "I mean, if they intend on making those the boy's wings, he couldn't very well sleep there while they're rebuilding them, now can he?"

"But there's plenty of rooms here," Hikari noted. "Why move him there if all he needs to do is move to one here?"

"Speaking of which," Kana said as she craned her neck and listened to the wind, "why isn't there any noise coming from that end of the building? Normally lately, you can't hear yourself with all the clatter they've been making…"

Rakka looked towards that area of Old Home. Indeed, the silence was odd, especially at that time of day. Even the Young Feathers were quiet for once. The girls went to check it out.

The rehab work was starting with a clean-out of the ruined rooms that lined the outer perimeter of the north wings of the building. The roof and upper floors of the northwestern unit had caved in long ago, and was being refit and secured to the new code The Corporation was enacting. But the workmen were all looking down at a foreman who was hushing them as the girls came around the corner.

"Hey, what's going…" Kana started to say, but found a hand being placed on her mouth to silence her.

"Shhh!" the foreman whispered. He then gestured to a sizable hole in the wall. It had originally been made when the roof had fallen and brought the other floors down with it. But now it had been enlarged to assist in the clean-out. Koi was standing in the middle of it. He seemed deep in thought with his hand held up to his face and sweat rolling down his brow. He then turned into the building then towards the outside. He then turned back.

"There!" he said as a burst of wind blew around him.

"Roger that," one of the workers reported from behind the gathered Haibane. "The spectral scanner just leapt… we have a visitor!"

"A visitor!" Rakka yelped. "Up here?"

"What do you mean up here?" Kana asked. "Are you saying you have these things down in the tunnels?"

Rakka spun about as a gust of wind swung around them. "It's why I wear that robe when I'm down there, remember? I told you when we went down before!"

Kana found herself being grabbed by Hikari as the wind whipped her dress about their legs. "Well would you kindly tell your ghostly friend to get back down there!" she barked.

"I can't! I've never met one before!" Rakka squealed as the wind zipped by them again and back into the building.

"This is not a demon," Koi said as he continued to watch the movement as he acted like a weather vane, twisting his body to where the apparition was and pointing with his outstretched arm. "This is something else… its confused and bewildered…"

"What is it?" Hikari asked as Kana wrenched her death grip from her arm.

"I'll find out," the foreman said as he pulled out a cell phone and started punching numbers.

"Koi," Rakka asked as she stepped up to him, "you can see it?"

He glanced at her and smirked. "I guess I can… can't you?" He turned away again following the spirit.

"No… no I can't… OH!" she replied as the wind blasted her then stopped. She looked up and saw Koi's hand pointing directly in front of her.

"You seem to have her attention," he said.

"H-her?" she asked. "It's a girl?"

"Why don't you ask her?" Koi smiled. "She's looking right at you."

"Where?" Rakka asked nervously as she looked about. She reached out with her arm and felt…

There was someone… or something… present before her. But what? Her fingers felt the tingle of skin touching skin – and hair… long straight hair slipped across the back of her hand.

And a tear… her hand suddenly felt wet. It was then that she felt something caress against her own cheek. When she glanced at Koi, he seemed bemused by the spirit's action.

* * *

The meeting adjourned unexpectedly when an intern broke in with the news that a situation in Glie was occurring dealing with the subject at hand – a spirit of unknown origin was causing trouble at Old Home.

Janice sat down in her workstation's chair and screened the readouts. "I don't see any… wait a minute…"

The spectral scanner showed an arc streaming downwards from the upper shield. She calculated the degree of approach from apogee and studied where it had come from.

"Just as I thought… You've never seen this before?" Ptolemy asked.

Janice never took her eyes off the screens. "Actually, yes I have, but we always thought they were natural occurrences… we get readings like this a few days after we'd have a planting… we call it an after-trail… This is the after-trail from those two New Feathers that landed in Tripoli yesterday."

"Does it keep that arc before it reaches the shield?" the scientist asked as he started working over her shoulder on another set of screens.

"It should," she said as she saw him bring up a drift chart. "Here… this is where yesterday's launch took place and here is the drift of the after-trail…"

Ptolemy grunted. "It's now a conduit… this is why they can see the Holy Sites. There wouldn't be an Apogee Report since they are actually using a prior landing's after-trail to take them there. I'm sure if we were to find out just when Miss Dunbar had her experience we could find out just which after-trail she had taken to get there. As it is, someone is having an NDE in… Nashville…"

"Do we have an address?" Plato asked.

Ptolemy shook his head. "Not yet… this system wasn't designed for outer readings, only inner ones… Janice, see if you can integrate the programming of the Earth Mapping Department into this system."

"Upgrading," she said as she flew over the board. "Adding mapping grid to launching map… Just to let you know honey, we are now in violation of Article 2 of the Anti-Contamination Proxy…"

Ptolemy looked back at his superior. Plato just waived it off.

"All in favor of dismissing Article 2 for this situation say aye!" he swaggered. There was a quick reply from all the board members present. "Motion passes – proceed…"

"We'll have to bring this up at our next scheduled meeting," Ptolemy half-laughed as he returned to the controls.

"The field agents never liked it anyway," Plato noted. "Speaking of which, do we have anyone close by our launch site?"

"Nearest field agents are… two hundred miles from Nashville," Janice said as the map deployed a series of spots across its surface. "We'll have to use the portal to get to whoever this is."

Dante looked at the sealed doorway beside them. "The portal? Can it be used outside the walled Holy Sites?"

"The portal can be aimed anywhere we please," Ptolemy said as he set the coordinates and reached for a handle below the controls. He looked back at the others in the entrance behind them. "You might want to step in here though, as that will be closing in a moment."

He lifted the handle and walked around to the opposite side of the monitors as the others stepped into the room. When Ptolemy released it, a clanking ratchet-like sound permeated the area. The floor shook and the door to the entrance slid shut as the room started to rotate on its axis. A few minutes later the door slid open again behind Ptolemy with Rhea waiting for clearance to enter.

"Took you long enough!" she snorted as she thundered through to Janice's side. "And what is the idea of acquisitioning the mapping system without consent!"

"Don't you ever sleep?" Ptolemy broke in. That just caused the woman to glare at him and point an accusing finger in his direction.

"It was you, wasn't it?" she snorted.

"Per permission of the council," Plato grumbled at her. She turned and looked up at him.

"Oh, so you just tossed Article 2 out the window did you?" she grumbled back.

"In this situation, yes!" he barked in return.

"FOR WHAT REASON, SIR!" she yelled this time. "Do you REALIZE just how much PAPERWORK THERE'S GOING TO BE!"

"Location found," Janice said, cutting off the yelling fit. An image of a building appeared. It was a hotel near the center of town. "Twentieth floor, room 2026, a Miss Charlotte Bovey…"

"CHARLOTTE BOVEY!" Rhea yelped. "What's with Charley B?"

Ptolemy crossed his arms and looked at her with puzzlement across his face. "Charley B? What's a Charley B?"

Rhea looked at him shocked. "You don't know who Charley B is?"

"Should we?" Hypocrites asked.

Rhea harrumphed and shook her head. "Why she's only one of the hottest country singers around. She's been on the Billboard and CMT charts for years now…"

"Oh, is that what I've been hearing coming out of your office then?" Plato said as he placed his hands over his ears. Rhea glared at him.

"Come to think of it though," she continued, "she's been out of it recently… I can't remember the last time I heard anything new out of her, ever since she was caught in that drug bust…"

Janice looked back at her then at Hipp. "That might explain what's going on then," she said.

"Great… an overly depressed singer… I'll get my bag," the doctor said as he left the room and Ptolemy entered the closet to get his jacket. Rhea stood simply blinking.

"Why? What? What's going on?" she asked.

* * *

Rakka stared at Koi with wonder as the hand remained on her cheek. Why could he see this… ghost?

Kana and Hikari clung to each other as they watched. They nearly leapt as they watched Rakka's hair move by the invisible hand that shifted it.

"I wish Nemu was here!" Hikari squeaked.

"Oh, like she'd know what was going on?" Kana replied.

Koi watched the apparition as she cried and held Rakka. He held out his hand as she looked over at him. Rakka felt the one hand on her left cheek leave her and Koi grasp something in his. The look on his face was kind and caring for this tormented spirit.

"Huh!"

She saw it rather quickly, the shift in color catching her attention. As Koi had 'grasped' the hand on the spirit, black markings scattered across his wings. She looked back at her own. What little she could see were also spotted.

"Sin bound!" Rakka whispered aloud.

* * *

"Transference is occurring!" Janice reported. "Her sins are transferring!"

Ptolemy stared at the readings. "That's… impossible!"

"Not for Charley B," Rhea noted. "She's one bad girl!"

"Alert Com-One and the Community Watch," Plato ordered. "You two, get going!"

"Coordinates set," Janice told them. "Good luck honey!"

Ptolemy and Hypocrites tugged on their hats and entered the green void.

* * *

Kana and Hikari saw the markings as well. Kana broke away from the grip of her fellow Haibane and picked up a nearby broom. "Get away from them!" she yelled as she swung it about.

Koi looked at her with surprise. "What?" he asked.

"Kana stop!" Rakka commanded in a voice that surprised her friend. "I know what is happening."

"But Rakka!" Kana grimaced. "Look at what it's doing to you!"

Rakka drew in a deep breath. "It doesn't matter… it doesn't matter at all. I understand. You see I was once Sin Bound."

Hikari and Kana gasped. "Y-you?" they both said.

"When!" Kana barked in almost an angry tone. "I never saw you with the black feathers!"

Rakka smiled and shook her head. "Reki helped me through it… she knew of a medicine to clean my wings of the marks… and then I finally was cured when I remembered my dream… So I am not afraid of this, the sins of another… I shall share them and help her, for I know that sins can be forgiven. I know that I will not be harmed for they are not my sins." She returned her hand to the 'face' of the unseen person.

"And I will guide you," she told the spirit.

* * *

A closet door swung open in the hotel room. "If she was awake, she'd think we were monsters," Ptolemy joked as he and Hipp stepped out. It was a sizable suite. There was a separate bedroom adjoining it to one side.

"Looks like that would be the place to check," the doctor said as he started for the room but was held back by Ptolemy.

"Hang on a moment," the scientist said as he took out his badge. "There's someone else here."

Hipp looked about. "There is?" he asked. "Not someone from the portal, ea?"

Ptolemy looked back at the closet. "No, but it might be a cousin…"

He stepped slowly towards the room and placed his foot firmly against the partly open door. He jumped in and held the badge out.

A woman was sprawled across the bed, her hair tangled about and a spilled glass of scotch in her hand. A pill bottle was also scattered over the mattress. Looming over her though were two dark figures, only slightly humanoid in shape, their arms slid along the ground and they had what looked like one lone red eye in the middle of their 'heads'.

"Angels of Adam," Ptolemy grunted, the badge in his hand flashing off them. They shuddered and stepped back. "See what you can do for her, Hipp."

The doctor looked at the two creatures Ptolemy was holding back and shook his head. "Those things always unnerve me… Ghastly things…"

"Hey, when the Grim Reaper can't be there, she sends her assistants," Ptolemy said as he took a position between the two phantoms and the bed. "Besides, they're necessary. They initiate the launching of the soul."

"You do know this could be the worst thing to do," the doctor said as he started to work on the woman. "She's a celebrity you know…"

Ptolemy glanced at the young woman. "I know Dante would say it didn't matter which way she'd go, and in her current situation, I would say she was heading straight for the basement…" He held his badge out further sending the two shadows back. "Personally, celebrity or not, if I can get someone to the attic, I'd rather do that, wouldn't you?"

Hipp smiled and shook his head. "The basement is not going to like this!"

"Bully for the basement!" Ptolemy snorted.

Koi saw the woman smile as she began to lift away from them. Rakka felt the hand swing away from her and the 'face' left the touch of her hand.

"Bye," she said as she watched the sky for any movement. "Safe journey!"

Kana brought her attention from the vacant sky back to her friend's wings. The black spots fluttered about for a moment then vanished. She breathed a sigh of relief.

The two apparitions in the room with Ptolemy and Hipp saw that this one was lost and vanished. The scientist returned his badge to his pocket and pulled out a handkerchief to pick up the room's phone.

"Front desk?" he said in an odd voice created by a small box he put over the covered mouthpiece. "Medical emergency in room 2026 – Medical emergency in room 2026… send the doctor here now." He then hung up and tapped Hipp on the shoulder.

"We're done here," he said. They left the moaning woman to be cared for by local physicians. After opening the apartment's door a little for easier access by those coming to her aid, they departed via the closet portal.

* * *

Janice stepped out of the portal and gasped for air. She looked for a place to lean against as she heaved. She looked at the section of Abandoned Factory she had come out of and shook her head. Why was it that they sent Haibane there? It looked dangerous!

She fumbled with the keys her husband had loaned her to open the main gate. A shadow moved over them. She looked up and saw a familiar face looking down at her from the top of the steps.

"Katherine, what are you doing here?" she asked.

"Probably the same thing that you're here for, Janice," the angel replied. "I'm here to investigate the resent event with the near death experience of Charlotte Bovey. But why are you here and not your husband?"

Janice smacked a spot where Jester had splattered a minor fireball on her. "As Director of the Travel and Targeting Systems, it is my duty to see that visits like hers are limited as much as possible… to that, it means I must get a residual reading on what brought her spirit here in the first place."

Katherine nodded then smiled. "Are you sure that's all, and it's not just that you wish to speak to Rakka again?"

Janice smiled and adjusted her bag over her shoulder. "That too," she admitted. "That too indeed."

The two women started out towards the gate.

* * *

"What did you do to Charley B?"

Ptolemy looked up from his desk at the Information Chief. "Charley B?"

"You know," Rhea barked at the old man, "Charley B! The country singer who had that Near Death thingy about six months ago! She just released her latest CD… She's found religion!"

"Has she now?" Plato asked as he looked around the corner from his own office. "Heavily?"

Rhea blew a snort of air and tossed a CD case at him. He fumbled with it and looked closely at the cover.

"Charlotte Bovey – Twenty-Five Gospel Classics – featuring her new smash hits 'Saved by an Angel' and 'I Will Guide You'…" Plato said. "This is bad?"

Rhea gritted her teeth. "Charley B was a country BAD girl, not a goody-goody!"

"Well, after what she went through, don't you think that this is for the good of her soul?" Ptolemy asked. He got a face full of Rhea for that remark.

"Look mister," she steamed, "I work close enough to that guy in the attic on a DAILY basis… I don't need to hear one of my favorite singers SING about him all day as well!" She stormed into Plato's office, snatched the CD and thundered back down the hall to her office, slamming the door behind her.

"Me thinks the Information Officer needs a vacation," Plato noted as he stood in the hallway between the offices. "Did you hear that Sun Tzu reported in on where that tabloid found that picture they ran?"

Ptolemy looked at him. "No, I haven't. Where did they find it?"

Plato snorted. "They 'acquired' the photo from a web site of school photos of dead children."

"That sounds about right," Ptolemy said with a touch of disgust in his voice. "And it just so happen to be Rakka's predecessor, right?"

Plato held his hand up. "Oh, it gets better," he said. "The editor was told of this web site and THAT photo by a possessed employee."

Ptolemy sat up. "Possessed? By a demon?"

Plato nodded. "And the web site…"

Ptolemy sat back again. "Let me guess… owned by Gabrella, right?"

Plato snapped his fingers. "Bingo, the lady demon herself, Chief of Communications for the Council of Demons. Boy, you're good!"

"Just have to know my demons…" he said as he placed his hands behind his head and leaned back in his chair. "Next time I'm in the portal I'll have to tell her how much I enjoyed the photo."

"You do that," his boss said as he dropped a folder on his desk. "We need you to go to Tripoli and get readings on the injectors there now."

Ptolemy dropped his head on his desk.

Koi sat back and examined the documents that forced him to come to Abandoned Factory nearly a half a year ago. He didn't like it there – the boys seemed too rough for his liking even with his athletic build, and the girls would squeal over him since they seemed to have deemed him cute… girls!

At least he could talk with Midori – she was one of those who had saved him in the tunnel. And her boyfriend Hyohko seemed a decent lot… though he was sure he saw some resentment when he'd be chatting with Midori alone.

Still, there was only a few more days left before he could return. He was there with the other new guy from Old Home who didn't like his given name since it meant Abandoned Well. He simply went by the nickname BW.

He missed the girls. Kana, Hikari, Nemu, even the twins, if you could call them that since one was a Little Feather and the other was a near-teen New Feather. They had been kept in seclusion for the most part, so he had not become accustomed to their presence as much, but still. Kana would show up from time to time to get petrol and oil for her scooter and rib them for becoming 'outsiders' – another name for those at Abandoned Factory, since there were so few enclosed areas there.

Rakka would stop by on her way to her job. She had taken it upon herself to examine some of the other sections of the canal under the walls around Glie, having seen the condition of the section between the western falls and the southern slues. With the permission of the Old Communicator, she was giving the Renmei detailed reports of any structural work needed as the cleaning process on the saint's tags continued. He was glad to see her – she was the one he missed the most. He could not get out of his mind how she had dealt with the wayward spirit, the kindness she invoked, and the strength of her presence when she was nearby.

He would speak to her when he would return, he was sure of it. He wanted nothing more than long, thoughtful discussions with this exceptional person.

Katherine stood on the top branch of a tree having lighted there a few hours prior. She looked at the boy who mournfully waited the day that he could return to his 'home' and sighed. Her duty was to replace the memory to this Haibane she had removed when he had been rescued from the tunnels. But she had to wait, much as he did, for his complete recovery from the concussion he had suffered. Extracting the memory had actually helped in the healing, but putting it back while still recovering would have been dangerous if done too early. She pondered the orders she had been given those months prior.

_"Then I suggest that you return that memory to him,"_ her superior had told her._ "It would seem he might be just what we were looking for. Do you not agree?"_

"Possibly," she told herself. "He is indeed strong… and he did shake-off the sin bonding as Rakka did… he was able to see the spirit when no one else could… but will he be able to see a demon if one arises here in Glie?"

She spread her wings and launched into the bright sky.

oOo

_**Play the RPG Sadako's Well on AnimeMangaWorld! - Email for the address**_

_**Join the Renmei - Visit the C2 Community and Discussion Forums of Charcoal Feathers of Glie & Surrounding Territories here on FFN!**_

Title Tales of Mystery and Imagination from "Tales of Mystery and Imagination – Edgar Allen Poe" by The Alan Parsons Project - ©1976 PolyGram Records/20th Century Records

Gabrella ©2004-2011 The Lugia Project/Denivan Media Services – Used with Permission

Angels of Adam reference – Neon Genesis Evangeleon ©2004-2011 Gainax/Project Eva

Billboard ©2004-2011 Billboard Inc.

CMT ©2004-2011 Country Music Television/MTV/Viacom

A tip of the hat to the story "Falling" by Black Waltz 0

Characters from Haibane-Renmei ©2004-2011 Yoshitoshi ABe

©2004-2011 The Golden Halo Project/DMS

Edit and Remastered 1106.11


	5. Jester

**.**

**2 0 1 1 - R E V I S I O N**

**-O-**

**H A I B A N E - R E N M E I :**

**C O R P O R A T I O N**

Chapter Five

**Jester**

By R. A. Stott

Originally Published 11/26/04

Original FFN #2088681

**Incident Report 8747E-29A.**

"How the hell did he get in there!" Plato thundered.

"System readings are off the board!" Janice yelped as the small green dot scampered across the map of Tripoli.

The sun burned down on the semi-arid soil as Ptolemy wiped his brow of sweat and some dirt. "Damn if I know… he was here when I arrived," he told his boss over his cell phone. He looked over at the girl who was with him. She was mussed up as well, with her shawl a bit lopsided and her dark hair and skin covered in dust as were her halo and wings. She grunted and shook her head but still managed to smile a bit. She was still trying to right a stand of fabrics that had been toppled on her.

"Are you okay Sol?" the scientist asked. She nodded yes then gave him a panicked look and pointed.

"Look! Look! There he goes!" she shouted.

Ptolemy spun about just as he saw the leaping feet of the imp he knew oh so well from the corridor that joined his world to these Holy Sites. Two Community Watch members saw them as well. They leapt at the fleeing pair only to smash into one another and send another table in the shopping bazaar tumbling.

"JESTER!" the scientist bellowed as merchants and customers ran about trying to either avoid the commotion or become part of it as they would also attempt to catch the wily little demon. Two near misses and a needer-needer later, the small dark green imp had darted down a grill in the sandy cobble-stone street.

Ptolemy quickly rummaged through his jacket that he had over his arm and pulled a large map out. Handing one edge to Sol, he traced where that particular storm grate emptied.

"If this is the Renmei Temple," Sol asked, "what is this down here?"

Ptolemy looked at where she was pointing and keyed his phone again. "Which way is he going honey?" he asked his wife.

"Um… south," she replied.

Ptolemy held his breath and looked at the large brown eyes of Sol.

"The slues gates," he answered the Haibane. "Come on…"

Jester found the dry tunnel an easy escape route. He chattered and giggled to himself as he scurried along toward the sound of running water.

"He's picked up speed," Janice told her husband as they passed the old fort that Sol called home. The rickety old car squeaked and rattled as they left a cloud of dust behind themselves causing the young feathers alongside the dirt road to dive for cover or hack from the flying soot.

"Sorry!" Sol shouted from the passenger window as the old coupe barreled along. "Please Mr. Ptolemy!" she then yelped to the driver as she was bounced about in her seat. "You'll kill us both!" She grasped at her halo and held on tight.

"This Ford Cortina was built as a rally racer – she'll hold up!" the scientist said as he concentrated on the road. "I will NOT let that imp get the best of me!"

"If you say so, Mr. Ptolemy!" his passenger squeaked. "But if you don't slow down, we'll be seeing Allah before HE DOES!"

The car leapt over a hill and landed on two wheels briefly before planting the other two properly a few more yards down the dirt path they were flying over. "He's not looking for the attic," Ptolemy snorted as he continued to floor the accelerator.

The car left the path and started into the dunes of sand that made up the southern most section of Tripoli. Everything there was a bleached yellow-white, including the walls to the Holy Site, which were now looming before them.

"Get ready," he yelled as they approached a small concrete building that seemed stuck deep in one of the dunes. He tore up to the structure, locking the wheels and making the loose sand spread away as if in thick waves. Sol peeled herself off the dash and watched the normally placid man she knew jump out of the car and run up to the metal door. She then heard him curse and swear, another trait she was not used to hearing from him. She saw that he was shaking his hands and looking at the entrance.

"Blasted door is red hot!" he said as he went back to the car for his jacket. He used it as an oven mitt to unlock and slide the door aside. He reached inside the doorway and pulled a handle which popped a hatch on the opposite side of the bunker. Sand poured into the now open hatchway to a service tunnel. It only took a moment for them to both be scrambling down the dark corridor.

"Where is he now?" he asked his wife on his phone as he waited for Sol to don her protective garb at the dressing station.

"Not far," she replied. "As a matter of fact, it almost looks as if he's waiting for you."

"He's doing what!" was all Sol heard as she slipped the robe over her head. When she looked through the collar, Ptolemy was already heading down the tunnel towards a maintenance hatch.

He slammed the handle to the last door and started sliding it to one side. It stopped half way much to his anger.

There was a giggling chatter from behind the half-opened door, which was just too narrow for him to slip through. When he looked around it, he found the green menace howling at him. Jester was prancing and dancing around, occasionally pointing and laughing at him. Ptolemy gritted his teeth and snarled at the imp as he lunged and snagged his tail. Jester screamed and hollered as if mortally wounded. But it was Ptolemy who took the brunt of the demon's wrath as the tail was barbed and it hooked quite deeply into his hand.

"Blasted little runt!" he spat through the pain. "When I get my hands on you…"

Sol managed to get her head and arm through the door while bending over the prostrate scientist and saw that the door had been blocked by a stick. She managed to yank it out and slide the hatch wide.

Jester saw this and twisted about, causing Ptolemy to roll across Sol's feet. The Haibane lost her balance and fell over him.

Ptolemy heard laughter as he attempted to clear his vision from out of Sol's robe. He looked at his hand and found only the tip of the demon's tail there. It had detached from the rest of it as if he were a lizard. He pounded it in the dusty floor and looked over at the landing at the bouncing creature.

Jester was cackling and doing a silly dance mooning him with the stump that was left of his tail. He stuck his thumb in his mouth and acted as if he were blowing into it. The missing section of his tail replaced itself with a new piece, making a popping sound as it did.

"You just wait until I see your sister again!" Ptolemy growled as he and Sol attempted to untangle themselves.

Jester held his head in mock-concern. He then spun about and skipped down the steps to the edge of the water in the canal.

"That's holy water! You can't touch that!" Claudius yelled much to Sol's surprise. He actually sounded worried. She looked over at the demon and saw that he was down by the bottom step. He was reaching out to stick the tip of his toe into it.

The water sizzled making Jester actually leap up a few steps in pain. He grabbed his foot and jumped up and down a few times until he noticed that Ptolemy was behind him at the top of the stairs.

"I told you," he said to him. "Now get back up here!"

Jester looked about in a panic. The slues gates were across the water from them, roughly ten feet or so away, but the flow kept him at bay. He looked back and saw the scientist and Haibane as they started coming down towards him.

Three steps back and a leap forwards, and Jester was now clinging to the grills of Slues Gate Number Two.

"Get BACK HERE!" Ptolemy bellowed, which echoed back and forth between the openings of the waterways and the canal. Jester thumbed his nose at him and started to swing back and forth between Gates Two and Three using the little vine streamers that hung from the cavern's ceiling. Before either of the chasers could move, he had swung on a long one and slipped through the grill of Number One Slues.

"Perfect, just perfect," Ptolemy grumbled as he pulled the phone out and keyed up the side buttons. "He's down Slues One on the old Delaware and Thames line."

"Is he heading for Philadelphia or London?" Plato replied as the scientist leaned hard over the edge of the landing to see what he could down the slues. Sol held onto his belt to keep him from falling in.

"I can't tell – the split in the flow is too far down the pipe to see." Ptolemy stood upright again. "Best we can do is post guards at all exits along the lines out this set of slues."

Plato looked at a map of where the water was being sent off through the conduits and sighed. "There's no time," he said. "If he makes it to the Beijing Backwash, he'll be impossible to follow."

Janice threw the scanners to exterior view. The green beacon resumed through a series of lines that were quickly breaking apart into branches and arms, many of whom showed exit points.

What the scanner wasn't showing was that Jester was still swinging over the water on vines that were dangling from the ceiling. The small side tunnels had few of these natural ropes, so the main line was the only escape for him. He followed it for another few yards when he came to a pipe leading up. He grabbed hold of a ladder that was imbedded in its wall and quickly climbed up.

"Movement on manhole cover TREN784-BEA," Janice reported. "He's coming up in Trenton!"

A boy stood in the middle of the street next to the State Capitol Building. He looked to one side and saw a hot dog vendor. His eyes watered and he began to drool. He jumped off the iron sewer cover he was on and made a bee-line for the polished sliver cart.

He came to a screeching halt when he saw two men wearing odd sunglasses and black suits look around the stand at him. The first one, a short man, had a hot dog in one hand and was tapping on an earpiece with his other. The other man, who was very tall, was opening his jacket. Jester saw the flash of a handle to something and knew this wasn't your average human scum having a lunch break.

"That was quick," the one tapping his ear said as his partner drew a large chrome-metallic gun.

"Let's bag him," the man with the gun said.

Jester reverted to his normal appearance and darted back for the cover as a beam of energy scattered across the asphalt just ahead of him.

"Carl! Don't discharge your gun in public!" he heard the man with the hot dog yell at his partner. "Use the capture setting!"

Jester spun about and looked back at the men as they closed in on him just as an energy web fell over him. He struggled to remove it, but it seemed to have anchored itself into the street.

He looked down and saw the manhole cover under his feet. He grinned and waved bye-bye to the two men as he poured himself down the lift-hole he had come out of in the first place.

"He's back in the slues system," Janice said as the green spot reappeared on her screen. "He seems confused – he's not moving… or he's circling for some reason…"

The demon swung about on a lone vine. There were few dangling about now, as there was little sunlight to grow them except around the Trenton manhole he just escaped down. A metallic scraping sound up the main tunnel caught his attention, as did clanking from above him as the two men up there were starting to open the cover.

Jester created a small fireball and held it out in the direction the flow was going. He saw that the water split just ahead. Two large tunnels went in either direction dividing the flow evenly. But he also saw something that made him chuckle with glee. The left tunnel had a walkway beside it.

He started to make the vine swing. Harder, further, until he released the strand and he tossed himself towards the tunnel. He unfortunately over-swung and smacked hard against the ceiling of the tube. He managed to claw into the stones and hang on. He shook off the blow and brought his feet up. Planting them against the stones, he targeted the walkway and squirreled up his nerves. With all his strength he launched himself at the brick path.

He woke up as a stinging jolt ran through his body as his left leg was dangling off the walkway allowing his foot to touch the water below. He leapt up and grabbed his foot again. After a few brief demonic swears and a glance back to see small rocks and debris dropping into the water from the manhole opening he had just escaped down, he turned and gimped into the dark passage.

Ptolemy had opened the slues gate and found the small service boat that was tied up near the landing. He looked up at Sol, who had helped him lower the boat down into the water and smiled.

"I'm sorry dear," he said to her, "but this is as far as you may go."

She nodded. "I understand," she told him. "Are you going to be all right? You seem to be sweating badly."

He wiped his brow. "Just the combination of being hot, being down here in these cool tunnels and a bit of overexertion," he smirked and patted her on the shoulder. "When I get going, get the Community Watch to close this behind me, okay?"

"Okay," she said as he stepped into the boat while pulling out his phone.

I hit him like a ton of bricks – his vision pitched and his head thumped and pounded. He looked at his hand and saw the gash left by Jester's tail – it was red and raw – It felt as if it were ready to blow up and explode. He tried to look back at Sol but the attempt only made him sway further. His eyes rolled up into his head and he crumpled to the bottom of the boat. The force of his collapse sent the boat away from the landing and into the open slues. His phone was tossed high and shattered against the stony wall over the open slue.

"Mr. Ptolemy!" Sol's cry echoed. She looked about in a panic. She knew she was the only person down there with him. She knew… she was the only person who could help him!

She looked at the water and drew in a deep breath. She then dove in, stroking hard for the boat. She managed to get to it quickly, but now had to figure how to get inside it. The robes she was wearing weren't helping much. She looked back at the landing which was quickly moving away and saw two Community Watch members as they entered the canal.

"Help! Help me!" she screamed to them. "Mr. Ptolemy is ill! I need help!"

The watch members stood and stared back at her as she tried to wrench herself onboard the boat. She stopped and glared back.

"What are you WAITING FOR!" she now shouted to them. When she opened her eyes again, she was shocked to see one of the Watchmen pulling on the chains that closed the Slues Gate!

"NO! NO! COME DOWN HERE AND HELP ME! DON'T CLOSE THE GATE! PLEASE HELP US!" she pleaded. But the iron grills continued to slide and grind in their mounts until they seated shut with a resounding thud.

"I don't believe it!" she whispered to herself as she managed to finally swing herself over the edge of the boat without tipping it over. She looked at where she was and where she was going and swallowed.

Out… she was going out… not over the wall, but under… she was going where no Haibane had gone before – at least, not as a Haibane…

"Merciful Allah…" she whispered to herself. She then remembered Ptolemy and bent down to examine him.

He had fallen over and broken one of the wooden seats in the boat. He was out cold and non-responsive. She felt his forehead and found he was running a fever. She looked at his lightly-wrapped hand and checked on the wound. It was red and throbbing as she held it. But as she did, some of the water she was dripping off her robe splattered off the gash and made it sizzle.

"The sacred water, of course," she said to herself. She slipped him as close to the side of the boat as possible and gently placed his hand into the flow. The water bubbled and boiled from the wound, and she saw that it was uncomfortable for the old man. She raised the hand up and found that it was doing it good, so she put it back in and watched.

The tunnel was getting darker, and she could hear something ahead – a commotion she thought.

"He's long gone, Carl! Come on, let's report in!" she heard.

"Hello?" she called out. "Hello, is there someone up there?"

"What the hell was that?" she heard back. She found the boat coming around a bend in the tunnel to a shaft of light from above. She looked around for something to paddle the boat towards it but found that the oars had not been taken aboard when Ptolemy had collapsed. She attempted to drag her hand on the walls, but the brick it had been constructed of seemed designed specifically to not grab things. And the flow of the water wasn't helping any. She then remembered the broken seat and started to wrench the long piece free. When it finally came loose, she nearly fell backwards out of the boat. She had nearly made it to the light, so she started to paddle hard.

"Carl, would you get the hell up here?" she heard.

"HEY!" she shouted.

"I did hear something," she heard the other voice say. She then heard clinking, as if someone was tapping on metal with a hard surface. As she neared the light, she could see movement.

"Help us!" Sol cried. "Professor Ptolemy is hurt!"

Now the light was flashing as whoever it was now was scrambling to get to her. "Geeze, Ptolemy!" he yelped. "Call for backup!"

She suddenly saw a shoe lower through the light as the tall man came down the imbedded ladder along the wall of the tunnel. But the flow was still keeping her on the other side and she flayed furiously with her makeshift oar.

The man turned and looked at the boat and its occupants. "Oh man, it's one of those winged people from Tripoli!" he exclaimed.

"Help us!" she cried again, this time holding the plank oar out to see if the man could snag it as they passed. He saw what she was trying to do and stretched as far as he could.

There was a nail in the plank, and it caught his hand.

"OW!" he shouted. He fell into the water. The plank went with him.

"Oh, merciful Allah!" Sol chirped as she moved around the prone body in her boat to see where the man had gone.

A gruff hand caught Carl's collar and hauled him back up to the ladder as the boat continued on. His partner had him by the scruff of his neck as he held his wounded hand.

"Damn!" he swore as he looked over the cut. "What the hell are they doing in the slues tunnel? You think they were after that demon?"

His partner shook his head as he hauled his wet comrade to the nearest rung to grab hold of. He lit up a cigarette once he could let go of him safely. "Don't know, but we'd better send word ahead… either of those main tunnels head for a re-blessing station for the water…"

Carl shook his head. "Yea, but remember what's after that on the Glie Aquifer over there? It takes a two hundred foot drop just after the station…"

"Crap, the Temple Waterfall, I forgot!" the short man said tossing the cigarette aside. "Come on, we've got to report in!"

Without a paddle or oar, Sol found she was now only along for the ride. The tunnel was getting too dark to see where she was heading, but she knew that the left tunnel was the one they took, as the splash the man had made when he fell in forced them that way. There was a walkway along side them, but she did not want to leave Ptolemy since there was nothing to stop or hold the boat if she had jumped out.

More light ahead - She checked on the condition of Ptolemy's hand and found it healed. She checked on his temperature – he still was showing signs of a fever. She sat down and sighed. The lights were playing about them as the boat moved on.

They moved into a short dark section where the walkway ended, after which another light from above brought a startling surprise to her – another rider in the boat.

"YOU!" she shouted at the imp. "Just look at what you've done!"

"Me?" he said in a high-pitched yet scratchy voice. "Me just run away… no me know what me do… done… humm?"

"What you did?" Sol now harped at him. "What you DID! What you did was come to a place you weren't supposed to come to, that's all!"

Jester twisted his head like a confused puppy. "Why?" he asked.

Sol sat back. This demon was acting like he really didn't understand. "Jester," she said as she settled down, "you are not supposed to be in Tripoli. It is not a place that you should be."

"Tripoli? We in Tripoli not!" he smiled. "Me Tripoli not in so angry me not you be!"

She held her hands to her face. You couldn't argue with that logic – they weren't in Tripoli any longer. Where exactly they were was a mystery to her as well!

"Look, Jester… you're not supposed to be here either…" she repeated, hoping that if she said it enough that the demon would understand, "wherever here happens to be right now that is…"

"Why not me demon?" he retorted. "Why not demon? Angel allowed in forbidden sites, me why not?"

Sol shook her head. "I'm not an angel, I'm a Haibane!" she pointed out to the imp.

Jester shook his palm at her. "Speak you not I of," he tumbled over his words. "Glie have angel, so Jester in Tripoli do I!" He pounded his chest and snorted.

"Glie?" Sol asked. "This is Tripoli… what's a Glie?"

Jester rubbed his chin. "Ah, Glie… place nice… hear you not of Glie?"

Sol shook her head.

"Oh, sister to Tripoli, Glie is indeed," Jester said as he laid back and rested his feet on Ptolemy's head, to which Sol lifted them off and dropped them to the floor of the boat. "Think you did that Haibane only land in Tripoli?" He rolled about in the bow howling.

Sol sat back. There were other places than Tripoli that had Haibane? She had never heard of such a thing… she had always thought that her home was the lone place of the earthbound angels… But since the wall of her community prevented any news of the outside world to come in, it was highly possible. Sol looked about and drew her shawl in. She shivered at the thought that she was now outside her wall… heading…

"We are heading for this Glie?" she asked the demon.

Jester jumped up and spun about. He leapt up on the bow of the boat and leaned out as far as he could go. He stuck his nose in the air and sniffed like a dog seeking a scent.

"Indeed, indeed," he cheerfully replied. "Glie and all parts west! All aboard! Meet angel we will!"

Sol looked up from her wrapped up position. "Angel… why is there an angel in this Glie place?"

Jester spat. "She's a sss-saint!" he hissed. "A sss-SAINT! FREED! FREED! A SAINT FREEEEED!" He started to jump and bounce in the bow of the boat nearly making it capsize. He acted as if his head were afire, slapping it as if to put it out.

Sol grabbed the sides of the boat to steady it. "STOP THAT!" she shouted, which echoed back and forth through the tunnels. To her surprise, Jester did just that, staring at her with big fearful eyes as if scolded by someone bigger and meaner than he was. She huffed and scowled at him. She glanced down on the man strewn across the floor. "So just what did you do to him?" she asked in an accusing tone.

"Me say before, to him do not," the demon whimpered. "The blood of Jester no kill… the tail of Jester sharp and thorny, but no kill… Old man sick on own he is indeed…"

This confused Sol. "But his hand," she said lifting the now healed appendage. "The holy water healed the scar inflicted in his hand."

"Oh cursed water," Jester growled as he feigned scratching at its surface. "Yes, yes… tail cut on man fixed by cursed water… water dissolves Jester and his marks. But Jester marks no kill old man."

"There's no poison in your tail?" she asked. "No venom?"

Jester shook his head. "Is old man dying?" he then asked.

Sol sat back and swallowed. She didn't know. It was a possibility, if Jester's cut wasn't the cause of Ptolemy's affliction. The strain of the chase may have caused something else – possibly a heart attack or heat stroke, or something… whatever it was, immediate attention was needed. She looked at the demon and found him crying.

"Why are you crying?" she asked.

"Old man can not die…" he whimpered. "Please say old man will not die…"

* * *

Rakka had finished her four month examination of the canals and had sent along her information to the Renmei. She was now back working on the tags near the Temple. She was an extra few hundred yards further upstream than normal, cleaning some of the tags closer to the falls and the feed coming down from the northern slues opening to the canal she had seen a week before. Now she had seen openings out from either end of Glie. It gave her things to think about while tending to the metal plaques.

"Rakkaaaa! Rakkaaaa!"

She only just heard the yelling over the din of the water as it cascaded into the tunnel from the falls near the Temple above. She looked and saw a man in protective robes far down the pathway that ran alongside it waving to her.

"Who is that?" she wondered as she waved back and collected her light leaf containers. She then headed down to him.

"Mr. English?" she asked. She remembered the face of the man she had met at the Scar's Village when Bakuu had her day of flight, the common man of Glie sent to the village as punishment for saying 'Washi is Washi' to the Old Communicator. "What are you doing down here?"

"Working with you, I guess," he said as he scratched the back of his head. "And please, just call me Tom."

Rakka looked at him confused. "Working with me? Really?"

Tom smirked and looked behind himself. Rakka peered around him and saw four other people there looking at her in awe. "Looks like you've got a crew now," he said.

She noticed that they seemed to be staring at her halo and she grimaced. "Are they all from the Scar's Village?" she asked in a whisper to Tom. "Are they all…"

Tom turned her aside and walked her a few feet away from the others. "…Defrocked Haibane, yes," he quietly told her, "and there are more. The whole village is buzzing about what you do down here. There are quite a few of them who would love to come down here and help out. And when your report to the Haibane-Renmei came out about the conditions in some parts of the canal area were deteriorating, the Communicator gave us permission to assist with the work down here… under your supervision of course."

Rakka looked at him as if he had just grown a second head. "Really? Why wasn't I told of this?"

Tom shrugged. "The Communicator was going to tell you about it, but he was called away just as we were heading down here just now. He did send those two Community Watch members along to keep an eye on things." He pointed down the canal towards a raft in midstream with a pair of the bandaged and gagged men that roamed Glie and kept the peace.

Assistance was well needed. She had estimated that there was nearly sixty miles of canal walls to cover, so help of any kind was of course going to be accepted. It was just… Scars?

She shook her head and slapped her face. Don't be foolish… they were Haibane as well, just wingless ones… and without haloes… and those scars…

"Please Miss Rakka," she heard. She looked back and saw a woman with drawn-in eyes and ratty red hair hanging out from under her hood. "We just want to help the saints… they're our only hope…" A man behind the woman placed his hand on her shoulder and nodded in agreement.

Rakka smiled and stepped up to her. "Of course you may. I can use all the help I can get down here. May I ask your name?"

Rakka noticed the Community Watch. They seemed uneasy that she was talking to the Scars, let alone asking their names. She scowled at them, and found that they actually settled down. The woman looked back as well then at the ground.

"We… we are not supposed to… talk or say our names…" she said.

Rakka removed her gauntlet and placed her hand on the woman's arm and smiled. "Don't be foolish," she told her. "I want to know. What am I suppose to do, say 'HEY YOU!' every time I want to talk to you? Please, tell me - what's your name?"

The woman blushed. She reached up and took hold of the man's hand on her shoulder. "My name is Toki… and this is Chip," she replied quietly.

Rakka grinned then looked at the woman with a little confusion. "Toki? Isn't that your Haibane name?" she asked in a whisper.

The man laughed slightly. "She didn't like the idea of finding a new name," he said as he reached over and pecked her on the cheek much to Rakka's surprise. They did look almost like husband and wife… she wondered if they could do that in the Scar's Village.

"My name is Cinder, Ma'am," the small girl behind them said.

"I'm Joshua," the lanky boy beside her reported. Rakka noticed that all four were carrying buckets and tools. She slipped her glove back on and stepped into the middle of the group.

"Cinder, Joshua, Toki, Chip, Tom, welcome to the Canal of the Saints," she told them with a slight bow to each. "I thank you for coming and helping me with my duties here. Now, let's see what they sent you down here with."

She examined the buckets. Each had some cleaning solution, a small brush for delicate work, a big bristle brush for that heavy contamination, and a few rags. There were no tools for collecting light leaf shards.

"The Communicator said only you were allowed to do that," Tom said. "He said something about you being the only one able to tell when they were ready for removal."

Rakka nodded. "Okay, if that's the case, I'd better also show you all how to clean the tags without ruining the leaves before I can harvest them."

* * *

Plato sat in his chair just staring out a window. Janice sat across from him in stunned silence. The report from Trenton was a bit odd, if hard to confirm, since the field agents were still attempting to report in from the location they had seen the demon. All that was known was that a boat containing the unconscious body of Professor Ptolemy and a Haibane, which they were assuming was Sol from Tripoli, was seen heading down the Glie Aquifer – the condition of either were unknown.

Agents were beings scrambled by Sun Tzu along the sections they could monitor. There was a part nearing the transition zone to Glie that wasn't accessible to their scanners. Getting the agents there in time was being a problem as well. The closest were the two in Trenton that reported already, and the Aquifer did not follow a direct path that streets could follow. Plus since it was heading for a major city, it dipped lower to avoid all the subterranean pipes, chutes, cables and subways beneath it, not to mention a sizable river beside it. It had been decided that they would attempt a rescue at the final entrance near West Chester. After that, any further attempt would have to be made in Glie, something they would rather not do, as they had never had a transfer of a Haibane between the Holy Sites before.

Plato looked over at a laptop computer on the corner of his desk. The initial target they were after, Jester the demon, was still reporting on the screen, and still advancing down the slues. They had no idea that he also was with the other two, only that he would probably make it to the next Holy Site because of this new emergency.

"Seven jewels in a necklace," Plato mumbled to himself.

"Huh?" Janice asked awakening from her stupor.

He shook his head. "I'm just remembering how the Holy Sites were described to me the first time. Seven jewels in a necklace - Tripoli as its center - Glie and Lucerne to its sides – Kanto, Reykjavik by and by – Sydney and Delhi bring up the ends – all to heed by mortal men…"

Janice numbly nodded. "It doesn't rhyme," she said in an almost monotone.

Plato wanted to say something, but this had not happened in so long to one of their own that he didn't know what to say. He tapped on an intercom and waited a reply.

"Communications, Dante here," it finally said.

"Dante, get me Gabrella," Plato grumbled. "I want to talk to her about her brother."

* * *

Jester had been nearly uncontrollable with grief. Sol finally had to gather the small demon up and cuddle him in her shawl just to settle him down.

"Shhh, shhh…" she whispered as she rocked slowly. "He will be all right. As soon as we get to this Glie you mentioned, we will get him help, I'm sure of it."

"But it was Jester…" the demon cried, "dumb, stupid, no think Jester who sick make old man!" He began to hammer his head against the edge of the boat, making Sol have to yank him up to stop him.

"Jester! Stop that!" she scolded him. "You'll hurt yourself!"

"Jester deserve hurt self he does!" the imp said with dizzy eyes. "Me no want hurt old man! Friend of Jester he is!"

Sol snickered at the thought. "You toss fireballs at him as he enters Tripoli," she laughed. "Some friend."

Jester placed his head between his knees. "Is game – play… you see?"

"I guess," she said as she held the demon. He seemed to settle down. "Why do you play these 'games' with him then?"

Jester shrugged. "Show other demons, me afraid of human not… is game… is only game…"

As they continued to drift, and as they passed small side tributaries, odd sounds would drift down them into the catacombs they were now traversing. There were children playing in one, machinery in another, a thumping and banging from yet another, and in one, what sounded like an explosion and cries.

"What are these sounds?" Sol asked herself, cringing when they seemed to get violent.

"The outside," Jester said. "Tunnels go outside many places, many times, different locations… stick to main tunnel… Go to Glie… safe in Glie is it… No get involved in human world. We not go into angry noise. We Glie go…"

"Well, if you insist," Sol said as some of the noises were getting a bit raucous coming from the small side entrances – it was as if they were passing through the tubes of a pipe organ, and someone was holding down the keys.

The main tunnel they were moving through was still without any landings or exits to be seen, and they had not seen any tubes leading up to the surface in some time. Little light was now visible as they continued on.

Janice sat down at her control bench, dazed and confused. The green spot she knew as Jester was moving along at a regular pace, still on the main line for Glie. He was now under the river that ran alongside the city that he would traverse next.

"Is that him?" she heard. She looked at the doorway and saw Rhea escorting a woman in. She had deep red skin, long black curly hair and golden cat-slit eyes. On her back were a pair of leathery dark wings, and she had a forked tail that jingled from a banded bracelet that swung from its end. As for what she was wearing, it was hardly office attire.

"Gabrella," Janice blankly noted as the Demon-Goddess stepped in and looked over her shoulder.

"I understand there's an emergency with your husband," Gabrella said as she drew a sharp fingernail over the monitor screen following the green spot through the river. "I'm sorry to hear that. Ptolemy is a good and fair man… for a human that is."

Rhea held her breath as she looked down at Janice. She was staring at the finger pointing at her screen.

Janice sighed. "Well, if it wasn't for your brother…" she started.

Gabrella stood upright and folded her wings over her bare shoulders. "Yes, even we are confused on how he got into Tripoli. It is quite embarrassing. And believe me he wouldn't want to harm your husband. He's quite fond of him."

"Really," Rhea said sarcastically.

Gabrella turned towards her and smirked. "Please, pardon the pun, but don't demonized us just because we are demons… we do have feelings just like you. Besides, he's probably with him right now."

Rhea and Janice looked up at the demon in shocked surprise. "What?" they chorused.

Gabrella pointed at the screen again. "You may want to consult with Virgil, Mrs. Ptolemy," she said with a slight chuckle. "That's a tunnel full of holy water is it not?"

Janice gasped and flew into the console's controls. The schematics of the construction started popping up on the screen. The tunnel was indeed smooth, with no signs of any place to walk alongside the aquifer. The only place the small demon could have been would be on something floating on the water – like a boat!

Janice was about to pick up the phone when she saw the clawed finger point at something in the path of the green spot. "What is this?" Gabrella asked, noting a double red line in the conduit's line.

"The Tacony-Palmyra Fault!" Janice called out as she moved the schematic to that location.

"An earthquake fault on the east coast of the United States?" Rhea asked in confusion.

Janice nodded. "Faults are everywhere, Rhea… and this one is active! About twenty years ago it had a minor tremor, but it was enough to drop one side of the tunnel a few feet."

Gabrella leaned into the screen. "Which side?" she asked.

Janice examined the screen as well. "The Trenton side… why?"

Gabrella stood up again. "You'd better check the water levels there then. If it dropped on the other side, the tunnel would have a small waterfall."

"But if it dropped on the Trenton side?" Rhea asked.

Gabrella grumbled. "Simple physics… water levels to itself… the ceiling of the tunnel would come down close to them. If they get into that section just past the break, the roof would be so low that it may submerge the boat."

In the boat, a sound they could hear was getting them a bit anxious. Jester held his palm up and lit a small green fireball lighting their way.

Just as he did, they saw the edge of the ceiling suddenly drop nearly three or four feet ahead. Sol and Jester dove for the bottom of the boat as they rushed by the entrance. The bow of the boat scraped momentarily along the stones as the water pushed them along.

"What was that all about!" Sol yelped. She didn't have much time to find out as the boat started to bang hard against the roof and sides. The pressure of the water was forcing them further into this part of the tunnel, but the ceiling was continuing to get lower and lower.

Now the boat was sliding against the ceiling and water was getting up closer to the edge of the side rails. Some splattered in causing Jester to dart about to avoid being splashed.

"Get in here!" Sol yelled to him as she opened her robes up. Jester looked at her and the garb she wore for a moment. A splash of water got him running into it as more followed behind. She closed it over him and held the neck shut to keep the water out.

The speed was increasing as the flow pounded against the flat stern of the craft, which scared Sol and the demon as the boat was pressed harder along. Sol felt Jester wrap himself and his tail around her and shiver in fear as they thumped and bounced along the tunnel roof. The boat then slammed to a halt, or at least felt that way, as it caught a stone along the ceiling. She felt water begin to come over the back and in with them.

The tip of the bow gave way, and the boat suddenly shot out of the tunnel. Sol screamed as she suddenly could see that they were in the clear, but also OVER the water – they had been spat out of a tube and into a reservoir area. She rolled onto her back and readied for a hard hit.

The boat smacked the water and skidded along the churning frothy area where the tunnel had emptied them out. She looked up from her position and saw that the cavernous area they were now in was illuminated by a lone light bulb. When she looked about, she found that the ceiling was curved and that it led to a single exit. What caught her attention there was that someone had managed to write in the stones over the tunnel entrance two statements – the first was 'Welcome to Bridesburg - Port Richmond' – the second was 'Kilroy was here' and was accompanied by a strange image of a domed shaped man with a big nose looking over a wall.

The green spot continued along on the screen much to the relief of those watching. It had settled in what the map was calling the 'Lardner's Point Relief' and was now heading into the city proper through the exit tube.

"Wow!" Rhea noted. "He really moved there for a minute!"

Gabrella laughed. "Just like a spit-ball out a straw!" she snickered.

"Eew, that's gross!" Rhea grimaced. "Are we sure they made it though?"

"They had to have," the Demon-Goddess said. "Jester's still showing, and knowing him, he's close to whoever he's with in that boat."

Sol was trying to see if Ptolemy was still with them – he had slammed into the bottom of the boat again when it landed. But the clinging demon would not let her move easily.

"Jester, allow me to BREATHE!" she exclaimed.

"Over is it?" he whimpered.

"Yes, you may let go of me."

"You soft… me stay right here…"

Sol stood up, which made the boat rock a bit. "Do I have to jump into the water to get you to let go?" she asked. Her robes suddenly came alive as Jester quickly unwrapped himself from her legs and dropped out from under it.

He looked about at the water in the bottom of the boat and cringed. The entire boat was wet.

The entire boat… Now that he thought about it, the inside of her robes were wet as well. He reached down with his toe and stuck it into the pooled water and waited for the pain.

Nothing – not even a sizzle.

He slapped his foot down in the water - Still nothing. He broke into a mad dance in the water, splashing Sol and Ptolemy as he gleefully announced "Water not holy! Water not holy!"

He was then slammed against the tunnel wall as a pipe disgorged itself across the back of the boat. Sol scrambled to the side to see where he had gone and lifted the limp mess back on board.

"This will not be an easy section," Virgil noted as he had now joined the ladies in the control center. "The flow has to pass under Philly here then get raised up here."

"So what's down there?" Plato asked as he entered the room and glared at Gabrella.

Virgil pointed at a series of lines that ran along the tube at an angle. "These are the backwash pipes from Tokyo, Seoul and Denver. The added water is used to power the turbines of our generator station down there which run this on the other side of Philly, the lifts system that brings the water back up to normal level on the other side."

"Just before the West Chester service center," Janice finished. "We are sending some of our off-duty PECO people there now to see if they can beat them there. Sun's people won't get there in time, so I scrambled some of them instead."

Plato patted her on the shoulder. "Fine," he told her. "Do what you must." He looked back towards the demon who had been leaning against the back wall but found her missing.

"I guess she didn't want to speak to you," Rhea noted as she too saw the vacancy.

"Oooh, headbanger," Jester grumbled as he groggily sat up and shook off the water. "Yuck…"

Sol smiled and sat in the bow of the boat with Ptolemy's head in her lap as she checked him over again. "You're welcome," she told him.

Jester mumbled and fiddled with his fingers. "Err, yes, indeed…" he said. "Me thank Haibane for removing me from water… yuck… safe it might be, but me no like wet…" He then shook like a dog, spraying the back of the boat. Seeing that it failed to remove every drop, he then fired up his internal fire of green flames and flared it over his body.

The boat bounced as the flames subsided. Jester looked at it and grinned.

"Motorboat! Motorboat!" he giggled. He sat down on the back seat and leaned over the rear and fired off his flames out of the palm of his hands, giving the boat some control finally as he moved them side to side.

Sol saw the use of this and nodded – as long as the demon didn't get out of control it was safe enough if he did that.

A clanking sound behind her caught her attention. She looked back and saw they were heading for a section that was lit by a series of old decrepit lights and went around a corner. She leaned a bit to see if the path was clear and caught sight of nothing… the water vanished, and the lights and ceiling angled down.

"Merciful Allah!" she shrieked as she now could see that the water was flowing over an angled falls.

Jester looked ahead and saw the drop as well. He shot his flames to the left and the boat spun about so that he was now leading the way. He placed both hands over the side and fired off his flames to slow them down but found the flow too great. He held it just enough to see what they were about to drop down into.

The clanking they heard was a blade that would rise out of the flow of the water and drop back down as it rotated – it would appear every few seconds. It was rounded and old, and obviously made of metal.

"Father Beelzebub!" he yelped as they tipped down into the flow. The drop was curved, not straight, so beyond the impeller could not be seen, though the lights continued along the ceiling.

"Look! Steps!" Sol yelled. Jester glanced back to see her pointing at the side of the drop. About six feet above them was a series of stairs leading to a doorway. "A service hatch!"

They were slipping over into the drop as Jester tried to push them towards the side. The blade seemed to not stretch the entire length of the tunnel, so moving to that side was a good idea anyway. He also saw that the stairs had a landing that lead down to the rotating mechanism. He raised his flames and shot a stream to the left.

They slowly bounced along the wall and neared the stairs. But then the blade broke the surface of the water again and sent a back-wave up the flow sending them to the far side of the cavern.

"We've got to get to those stairs!" Sol called out.

"Me trying!" Jester yelled back as he strained to hold their position. The blade rose again, this time bouncing them towards the middle of the flow. He quickly shot a blast to the left to assist the move to the right. The boat smacked the wall nearly sending Sol and Ptolemy overboard. They were on the right side now. All they needed to do was gently make it to the last step on the landing.

The blade came up again. This time, it was Jester who nearly fell out as he attempted to compensate for the back-wave. The boat lurched forwards and hit the stairs. The flow of the water started to pull the bow around and away from it. Sol screamed as she saw that the blade would slice them in two.

Jester fired all he could to get control of the boat again. He brought the aft about and steadied it so that he would face the blade again. He looked at the stairs, now drifting further away, and sighed. There was no way he would be able to get them back up to it. He sent out a blast of flame that nudged them back ever so slightly, but that was as far as he got. The blade rose again, and he allowed the boat to thunk up against it as it spun. It dipped away, and the boat cleared it on its way down the sloping hill.

He shook his stinging fingers and looked at the tunnel ahead. He glanced back at his passengers. Sol still had Ptolemy's head in her lap. But the look on her face caught him. She showed obvious worry, concern for the old man, but no panic. But her expression to him, a lowly demon, was that of someone depending on him to pull them out of all this somehow.

Somehow…

He turned to see that they were now bounding backwards down the slope over more impellers which didn't break the surface, but still churned up the water in a froth of foam where the blades came close to the surface. He resumed his thrust of flames to direct them between the heavier ones.

The drop seemed to go on for miles, and probably did seeing how far under the city they were descending. It took nearly an hour of falling before they finally reached another flat reservoir that was dimly lit and dripping.

"Yuck! Holy water this becomes?" he snapped. "Me not scared of stuff more no!" He dunked his hands in and made them sizzle, but this time because they were hot from the exertion.

Sol reached over and gave the demon a hug, much to his surprise. "Thank you," she told him.

He made a simple grin and chuckled to himself then realized what was going on as she let him go and sat back down. "Yuck!" he griped. "Sappy no need! Me demon not lover! Blaa!"

The boat slowly spun about in the water giving the occupants a chance to see where they were. On one end of the cavern was where the water flowed in. On the other were more machines that seemed to be lifting large square buckets of water up out of this reservoir. In the center was a large stone pillar that seemed to be the lone support for the ceiling of this huge room. A catwalk ran around it just off the waterline.

"Let's check that out," Sol said. "Maybe there's a door on it."

Jester fired off a small ball of flame and sent them towards the pillar. A door appeared around the side facing the bucket lifting operation. They came alongside a landing. Jester grabbed the rusty grilled metal plate and Sol climbed up to check the door.

She rattled the handle. She tapped on it and looked through the grimy little window and saw very little.

"It's locked," she said in dejection.

"Locked!" Jester laughed. "Just who they expect here come? Let me try…"

Sol got back into the boat as Jester looked over the situation. He scampered up the stones and glared in the window. He examined the metal and tapped on it lightly and listened. He then jumped up on the railing of the catwalk and brought to bear his flame as hard as he could bring it.

The door shuddered and groaned. The hinges melted and it swayed. It fell over with a resounding crash. But it smacked the railing sending Jester out into the water.

"Water don't melt no more me!" Jester cheered as he splashed about. "But I melt door, ea!"

He looked at the boat. It was away from the catwalk a bit as Sol had let go when the door started to fall over. But the look on her face told him something was wrong. He dog-paddled over and saw a skeletal hand on the catwalk followed by the body directly behind it. As he got closer, he could see that there were quite a few more – the doorway seemed packed with them, many in tattered old clothes.

"Ah, American Revolutionary War…" he said as he saw the uniforms. "Many joined us, indeed…"

"They fought between themselves?" Sol asked.

Jester gave her an incredulous look. "These are humans, girl! War natural between them. Same it is always… Man fight or not be man. It was fight by man that Tripoli and Glie were created it was! YEOWP!"

The sudden yell by the demon caught Sol off guard. She looked over where he had been just in time to see his hand vanish under the water.

Below, Jester struggled to get back to the surface. Below him was a pipe that was taking in water, thus causing a heavy undertow. He flayed and stroked as hard as he could, and managed to break free to the flow towards the tube, but found himself caught in another current.

He broke surface a few yards away from the boat. Sol was looking around and saw where he was now.

"Jester! The buckets!" she yelled.

He looked behind himself and saw the large metal scoops lifting water up a conveyor and gurgled. He had little strength left to avoid it.

Sol reached down and hand-paddled the boat for all she was worth. She grabbed for the demon's hand just as he was about to get pulled under again. She dragged the waterlogged creature aboard and dropped him beside Ptolemy as the boat swung around the side of the bucket machinery. Jester spat, coughed and heaved.

Sol looked back at the pillar. There was no way she was going through those skeletons. She looked at the buckets and figured it was the only other way out. Fortunately, they seemed just large enough for the boat. But a large frothy burst would churn up the water as they would turn over under water and release their pockets of air. She slid the boat next to the mechanism and waited for the next burst.

The water bubbled and she hauled them into the next bucket to rise up. It swayed a bit, sliding the boat backwards as it settled into the scoop. The one above them was giving them quite a shower as it rocked on its way up, but they were at least getting out of there.

Virgil sat down with a thud. "How did they manage to do that?" he asked. A folder was dropped before him by his boss.

"I suggest you read this then," Plato noted as he opened the dossier. "If that's Sol with them, then they stand a good chance getting out of there alive. She is one smart Haibane."

"Do not underestimate my brother," Gabrella's voice resonated through the room. Dante shook his head as he continued to work the phones between the attic and the basement.

* * *

Rakka stood back and watched the crew work on this new section of wall. Tags for yards were gleaming and bright, something even she would never have been able to do in a week's hard work. She filled an extra six light leaf tubes in the short amount of time it had taken with the added assistance of the villagers. It had been Toki who noted that "We may never see our day of flight, but it would honor us if we can do something to help another's attempt."

She saw that even the stoic Community Watchers seemed impressed by the work being done. She had rarely seen them converse between themselves before, even if it was with their hand language she had just began to understand. She nearly giggled as she saw the words 'speed', 'impressive' and 'excellent work' get flung around in a litany of gestures and hand-positions.

But they suddenly stopped. One dropped his cane he had stuck in his armpit to hand-sign. The other fell to his knees and began to pray.

Toki heard the clatter of the rod and looked about. She gasped when she saw someone coming down the path from upstream.

Rakka spun about. The person was in the robes needed to be down in these catacombs so it was hard to discern who it was at first. But why were the two Watchers awestruck so?

The glow coming from the tags caught the stranger, illuminating her face. Rakka smiled and ran up to her.

"Katherine! Katherine! What are you down here?" she cried as she took the hand offered her by the angel.

"Bakuu," Toki said making the others gasp at the sight of the woman they had witnessed being released from her wall prison nearly six months prior.

Katherine stared at the glowing tag. "So, this is what it looks like," she whispered aloud. "Our powers trapped in these… plates… an eternity caught in these stones… I am humbled by your presence here."

Rakka blushed and smiled. She found herself being embraced by the angel.

"I am here for another reason," Katherine told her as they stood there. "It is good to see that you have help here as we may need them as well."

Toki and Chip stepped up. "What is it, Bakuu? Anything for you…"

Katherine smiled as she released Rakka. She looked at the two Watchers and gestured to them in their hand-words. Rakka blinked as she studied her movements.

"Follow us as well?" she asked Katherine. "Where are we going?"

Katherine looked at the Haibane in surprise. "You've learned the language of the Toga?"

Rakka grinned. "The Communicator has been teaching me," she said with a proud smile. "So, where are we going?"

Katherine took the girl's hand and led her and her group back up the path she had just come down. "We have an emergency that we will need you and your group for. Professor Ptolemy has taken ill…"

Rakka stopped in her tracks and gasped. "Mr. Ptolemy? Where? When?"

Katherine retook the hand she had lost when Rakka had stopped. "Come! Come! I will tell you as we go! We must hurry!"

The group found that the ceiling started to climb higher and higher as they continued up the path. Soon the path itself changed to large flat steps that rose away from the water as they approached where the descending water split between the canal and the river that flowed down towards Old Home. The roar of the main falls began to dominate the cavern. Plants and vines started streaming down the walls covering the few plates and tags along this section of the tunnel.

"What was he doing in a boat upstream from here?" Rakka asked when told that the old man had been on the water feeding the falls.

Katherine hesitated for a moment. She glanced back at the Scars following a few yards back. She continued on with a slightly quicker pace. "He was attempting to apprehend an imp that had escaped into this world," she said.

"Oh, Jester?" Rakka asked in an almost excited voice. Katherine looked down at her with surprise.

"You know of Jester?" she asked.

Rakka nodded. "The Professor talked about him all the time," she noted. "He's always trying to steal something from him."

Katherine huffed. "Well this time, he seems to have been able to sneak in with some work crews." She glanced at the young lady beside her expecting the next question and wondering just how to answer it.

"But what was he doing up there?" Rakka asked. "Just what is up there?" she added as they reached the base of the falls directly beside the Temple of the Renmei. High above them the rope bridge creaked gently from the breeze generated by the flowing water.

The angel sighed. "Outside," she said. "Outside and the beyond." She looked down at the group that had gathered around her. "We only need wait. I will be informed if we are needed, as rescue efforts are currently underway."

Rakka reluctantly stood back not wanting to press her questions on the angel. Her heart, once gleeful over the new help she was receiving below, now sank fearing for her friend's welfare.

Then something struck her – something she remembered saying to her friends less than a year before when they were saving Koi…

_"First… we must agree to never tell anyone about these… exits in the wall…"_ Rakka had told Kana, Midori and herself as they sat before the southern exit slues gates from Glie.

_"What?"_ Kana had barked. _"Not tell anyone? Why?"_

Midori nodded. _"I understand… you don't want another Reki, right?"_

Rakka sighed. _"It's for the best. I understand why some would want to fly over the walls, but if they knew there was a way under it…"_

Kana finally got it and sighed as well. _"You've got a point… least the temptation…"_

_"Right,"_ Rakka agreed.

She glanced back at the five people who had followed her there. If knowledge that there was an exit out under the wall to the south was trouble, what would they do if they knew that there might be one where the water comes in at the Temple?

* * *

Hipp charged into the room with his medical kit, took a look at the map displayed on the board, traced the location of the boat to where they were going to attempt to intercept it and shook his head.

"Where is the crew that will be going in the West Chester station?" he asked Janice and Virgil.

The engineer looked over the paperwork and data before him. "Umm… here," he said pointing at a line of dots all converging to a point at the end of the line the canal followed.

The doctor grunted and set the travel portal for his special door in Glie's hospital. "They'll never make it," he said. He stopped for a moment and looked back at the map. "Did I hear correctly that there's a Haibane with him in the boat?"

Plato nodded. "Yes, we think Sol from Tripoli is with Ptolemy."

Hypocrites glared at him for a moment. He opened the closet beside his door and pulled out his burn kit.

"What's that for?" Rhea asked then caught herself. "Oh god, the wall!"

He nodded in agreement. "They're going over the wall where the water gets re-blessed. A Haibane will be torched by all that power, even if they're in their robes." He entered the portal and headed for Glie.

"Contact the Glie crew," Plato ordered. "And get our rescue crews to speed up and get to the West Chester sub-station now!"

Hipp adjusted his hat and took a step into the green void. A hand rested on his shoulder.

"Coming with me?" he asked the woman.

"Try and stop me," Gabrella noted with a smirk.

He looked back at the closed portal entrance. He then offered his arm to the Demon-Goddess. "You do know this is against the rules," he said as they started their way through.

"Hardly," she laughed. "The Holy Sites are supposed to be off limits to those you say come from the 'attic' as well, yet I hear there is an angel there right now."

"A released saint," the doctor corrected her.

"That shouldn't matter," she scoffed. "Even those earthbound angels there are supposed to depart when their time is due. Just because they look like angels does not mean they stay that way."

"That is the purpose of the sites," he said. "But we are not supposed to interfere with that either."

Gabrella burst out laughing. "What nonsense! It's supposed to be equal there – neither side is supposed to get involved so that those who are supposed to go to heaven go to heaven, and those who go to hell _**GO TO HELL**_… ahem…" She cleared her throat a moment and continued. "But even there we are unequal."

"How so?" Hipp inquired.

"The Scar's Village, the canal of holy water, the guidance of the Haibane-Renmei," she listed off. "They're all set against us in the underworld. Where is our representation?"

The doctor stopped and looked at her. "What do you want us to do, install an Idolatry shrine in the Holy Sites?"

She gave him a disgusted look. "Don't patronize me," she spat. "Things are not equal and you know it… though that would be a start…"

He took her by the arm again and continued to lead her through the zone. "Do me a favor – before we get there, could you change into something less… fearful?"

She looked down on herself. "What?" she asked incredulously at first then winked at the human. "I wouldn't blend in?"

Hipp rolled his eyes. "Hardly," he moaned. When he looked back, he found that she had hidden her leathery wings and the dress that almost wasn't there with a rather cartoonish looking nurse's outfit. The green atmosphere hid whether she had changed her skin color or eye shade, though she had at least bundled up her black curly locks into a swirl on the back of her head.

"How's this sweetie?" she cooed to him. He shook his head and kept going.

Koi sat on the gurney in the Glie Hospital waiting his follow-up examination by the doctors for his concussion he had suffered when he had arrived. He had felt fine, but they were insistent that he have it checked on every month or so. So there he sat – waiting… and waiting… he had missed a day's worth of work at the local newspaper because of the delay. He sighed.

A doorbell chimed. The nurse at the station outside the room that he was sitting in stood up and snapped to attention.

"That's weird," he said to himself. Just then, the handle of a door he had thought was a closet started to jimmy about. The door swung wide and the nurse seemed to stiffen.

"Wait, wait!" he heard. "Let me do this…"

A leg extended out of the doorway - A long - slender – red skinned woman's leg with a brilliant white high-heel shoe at its tip slid out. It planted itself on the tiled floor with a loud clack. The nurse nearly fainted. An orderly suddenly had a severe nose bleed and ran away.

"I didn't think demons were allowed in Glie," Koi said blandly.

Gabrella stuck her head around the corner and glared at him. "Oh, it's just you," she said as she saw the Haibane sitting there. "What has the talk of the Demonic Council sitting here in the hospital in Glie?" she asked him as Hypocrites forced his way around the Demon-Goddess.

"Examination of my concussion," Koi replied seemingly unimpressed by the sultry appearance of the woman.

"Oh really?" she sarcastically asked back. "And they do that by checking your feet?" She had noticed that the boy was sitting there in bare feet.

Hipp wasn't in the mood to dilly dally. He picked up the boy's foot and ran the rounded point of his rubber hammer up it. "Here, do you feel that?" he asked.

Koi hardly could hold in the chilling shock it had been – that hammer felt as if it had been in an ice box! He grimaced a nod yes.

"Good!" the doctor said. "Put your shoes on and go home!" He then grabbed Gabrella's arm and dragged her along. "We don't have time to waste!" he barked as they left the room.

* * *

Jester groggily sat up and looked at the Haibane as she cupped water that had spilled in with them over the side as they continued to rise up the lift system. He rubbed the spot where his head had smacked the bottom of the boat and winced.

"Why you save Jester?" he asked as he pushed a large lump back into his skull.

Sol smiled and laughed at him. "You are not what I imagined a jinn to be like," she giggled. She looked at the stones as they passed along. They had been traveling up this lift for nearly an hour by that point and the top still seemed far off.

The water must have leveled off in the bucket above them as the shower it had been giving them had stopped. The beat-up lights that had been following the center of the cavern trundled by, some buzzing and a few were blown out. Jester leaned over the side and looked up to see if he could see where the top was.

"YAA!" he shouted. He saw that the bucket only four or five ahead of them had swung over a dark precipice and vanished. The rumble of the machinery had masked out the dumping sound it should have made, or something else had.

"GRAB SIDES! GRAB SIDES!" he shouted as he hung himself over Ptolemy's legs and grabbed the boat.

Sol looked at him in confusion but did as she had been told. It was then that they finally started to hear the transition and held their breaths for it.

The bucket suddenly lurched and changed directions. The boat rocked back and forth slapping the sides of the bucket. They looked up and found that they weren't rising any longer, but were now rolling along on a flat conveyor section. But they could see the end now, and the buckets were dropping away. They were obviously dumping their loads, but they still could not hear them doing so.

"This good not," Jester grumbled. "This good not indeed."

It then dawned on them just why they weren't hearing the water dumping out of the buckets – The release point was nearly ten feet over the water in this upper reservoir. Both huddled low over Ptolemy's body as they were flung out. The boat spun and flipped twice, smacking the water hard, but fortunately upright.

"They made the West Chester Slues," Virgil noted. "Rescue teams are now entering the complex.

"Can they make it to the aquifer in time?" Plato asked his engineer.

"Uhhh," Sol said as she looked up. She felt dizzy and a bit sick from the flinging. The little demon was still straddling the boat with a death-grip on its sides. He opened one eye and peeked about.

"Survive did we?" he asked. Sol nodded and then leaned over the side.

"Ooh… water not holy no more," Jester kidded her. She glared at him.

This upper reservoir was constructed much like the one they had left earlier – a central pillar ran up and supported the large curved ceiling high above. Jester shook the water off his hands and returned to being their motor. He directed them towards the catwalk that surrounded the bottom of the shaft and found the doorway.

"This dumb… this dumb flat out," he grumbled. The metal door this time had no handle. "Well, me open," he said as he jumped out and readied to blast it with his flame.

Sol had not seen him get out as she was having a case of dry heaves. When she looked up she found she was nearly twenty yards away from the catwalk and rapidly being dragged away.

"Hey! Jester! JESTER!" she shouted. Her voice echoed about the domed cavern.

Jester looked back. "Hey, where you go? What out there you doing?"

"Jester!" she cried. She looked over her shoulder and saw that the boat was heading for the exit tunnel, and the sound coming from it did not sound inviting.

"Me come!" he shouted and ran around the catwalk once to gain speed. He leapt off and fired his flames behind himself to add to his boost.

His ear twitched. What was that sound behind him?

He looked back and saw the door swing open and a man in a hardhat come out.

"Hey! Hey! HEY!" he yelped at the man as his flame played off the stone above him thrusting the demon away. But the distraction also made Jester overcompensate, and he overshot the boat, dunking himself into the water across its bow. Sol felt a thunk, and when she looked over the side, she found that the boat had run Jester over. She reached over and dragged him once again into it.

"Hey! Miss Sol!" the man on the catwalk yelled out to them. "Miss Sol, are you alright!" A second and third man came out of the doorway.

"Hey!" she yelled back. "Help us! Help!"

"We'd better hurry," the second man said as he unbundled a rope he was carrying. "They're about to hit the barrier."

The third man took the rope handed him and began to twirl it about his head in an attempt to give it some momentum. The catwalk did not give him much room to work, but he still managed to toss it out high and long. The end snapped out, and it looked as if his aim was true and would hit the back of the boat. But as Sol reached up to snag the line, it struck something unseen above her. There was now something between the boat and the men on the platform – a shield of some sort as she watched the rope slide off of it and into the water.

"No! No! NOO!" she cried.

As the men watched helplessly, they could see her wings under her robes flick.

"Oh god," the first man said. "That Haibane is toast!" as the boat was drawn into the exit slues.

Jester groggily sat up and spat out some water. He looked over his shoulder at the bright tunnel they were heading into.

"We go out," he said dizzily. "Glie we come!"

On the map in the control center, the small green spot flickered and vanished as it entered the area marked 'transition zone'.

Sol turned away from their hopeful rescuers and looked ahead of them. The tunnel was indeed bright. It bathed the boat in a pure white that made her hopeful that they weren't about to get themselves into more trouble.

"This is Glie?" she asked the demon. He was now upright again, and bouncing a bit in the bow of the boat.

"Glie! Glie! Yes! Yes!" he chortled. "We go Glie now!" He looked back at his boat-mate with a grin, which quickly turned into a look of shock. "Hey, why smoke you?"

Sol held her forehead. She was hot - Hotter than any day in the deserts of Tripoli. Why? Why was she burning up so?

She slumped over, the heat building in her body. Her back ached, and she felt rustling across her feathers.

"Yi yi yi! You burn!" Jester yelped and looked about. He reached down into the water to splash her and found his hand sizzling again.

"Holy water!" he yelped at the pain. "Yi yi yi!"

Sol was smoldering heavily now. The demon looked about in a panic trying to find something that would help her.

"Use the water in the boat," he heard. He looked down at the old man.

Ptolemy's eye only showed open a slit. "The water here in the boat hasn't been fully blessed," he whispered. "Pour it on her Jester. Pour it on her, please!"

The demon looked at the gathered water in the center of the boat and touched it with his fingers. It stung a bit, but it wasn't as bad as that flowing by the side of them. He cupped his thin bony fingers together and reluctantly immersed them in the pooled fluid.

It hurt. It was not like plunging them into the Holy Water, but it stung. He lost the first handful as he shook his throbbing hands. He looked at the girl as he blew on his fingers. He remembered how she looked at him as they were running down that slope before – the look she gave him – of a person trusting in him to pull them through all this… No one had ever trusted a lowly demon like that before…

He scooped up the water and quickly dropped it across her back. It steamed and sizzled much like his hands had when he had dunked them in the Holy Water. He repeated the process as many times as he could, even with his hands getting raw from the exertion.

The water quickly ran out in the boat. He looked overboard at the stuff beside them. His hands were almost numb with what he had been tossing on her already, so he figured that it wouldn't matter now how much it stung now. He reached down and began quickly tossing the Holy Water across her body. "Must save friend! Must save friend!" he repeated to himself as he continued to douse her as his fingers continued to blister.

He was now at a frenzied pace. He was spraying water everywhere as he rapidly attempted quell her heat. He came to an abrupt halt when a hand gently touched his shoulder. He looked at Sol and saw her smiling at him, drenched but no longer steaming.

"You better?" he asked seeing two scorch marks on her back in the form of wings.

She nodded, but never managed to say a word as the boat tipped over the edge of the falls.

"There!" Rakka yelled as she saw the boat come over the drop. Katherine exploded out of her robes, wings and halo springing forth as she ascended the falls.

"OOF!" Rakka heard beside her, and then was blasted by a gust of wind. She turned and found Doctor Hipp sitting on the ground looking a bit unkempt.

"What is THAT!" Toki yelped. Rakka looked back up the falls and saw that Katherine had been joined by another winged creature, but this one seemed less than holy.

Jester was first out of the boat as it tumbled. Sol was then ejected. Ptolemy seemed hung up with the descending craft, but finally separated as if a rag doll in a torrent of wind. Katherine caught him, then caught Sol's robe by the collar. She nearly lost her as the robe started to tear, when she seemed to be lifted up by another set of hands

"YOU!" she yelled seeing Gabrella holding an arm of the limp Haibane. Jester was clinging to his sister's neck with what little was left of his hands. She glared at him.

"You've been playing in the Holy Water again, haven't you?" she growled.

Jester sheepishly grinned. "Haibane, me save Haibane," he said.

"That's still to be determined," his sister said as they floated down. Below them were the waiting members of Rakka's crew and the two Town Watch members, who now had their staffs up ready to pounce. Hipp was gesturing for them to step back.

"Oh, where is it?" the doctor grumbled as he patted down his pockets. He finally drew out his wallet and displayed his badge to the two Watchers. They drew back only slightly, but they did heed the symbol of authority.

Rakka scampered about a bit as she tried to find the right spot to assist the two winged women and their burdens. She had not noticed just how close the boat had smashed to the ground nearby - she just wanted to see Ptolemy's condition. She found Chip and Tom standing over her assisting with the nearly dead-weight removal of the scientist from Katherine's shoulder.

"Damn, look at those scorch marks," Hipp said, catching Rakka's attention momentarily. She was surprised that he seemed more worried about the person with Ptolemy than he was with his friend. It was then she finally noticed the halo, and the fact that this person was wearing the same type robes as she and her team was. "Put her down over here, Kat," the doctor told the angel.

"Sol," she heard. She looked over at Ptolemy and saw he was barely looking over at what the doctor was doing. He looked up at her.

"Rakka," he whispered. "Hello dear… Ah, we made it through…"

Rakka kneeled down beside the old man and took his hand and smiled. "You're safe, if that's what you mean." She looked at the red woman, and the strange looking green creature hanging from her shoulder that seemed to be pulling fingers out of his hands. The woman had bent down and taken Ptolemy's other hand.

"Hey Gabrella," he smiled, much to Katherine's dismay. "They allowed you in here then?"

The demon smiled. "I kicked my way in with Hipp," she joked.

Ptolemy coughed a laugh. "Jester, you did a wonderful job, even if it was you that put us into that mess."

The imp grinned and scratched the back of his head.

Hipp took out a pair of scissors and cut the robe off the still smoldering Haibane. As the fabric parted along her back, a vapor of steam rose.

"Damn it… damn it… damn it…" the doctor grumbled as he opened the large white burn kit.

"How is she?" Ptolemy coughed. "Hipp, please…"

"Toast," was the cursory reply. "Her wings are toast… I'm attempting to preserve what's left… I'll see if I can regenerate them…"

Ptolemy dropped his hand. "She should have let me go… She should have stayed behind… oh Sol… I'm sorry…"

Rakka looked between the girl and the old man in confusion. "I don't understand… who is she Professor?"

"She is a Haibane," the deep booming voice of the Old Communicator said behind her. "She is a Haibane from the town upstream."

Rakka's eyes flew wide. She looked up at Katherine and then at the woman holding Ptolemy's hand, but found them both looking away as if they did not want to talk about it. The imp on the other hand just shrugged his shoulders and smiled.

The Communicator brought his staff down with a sharp click. "Angel, demon, I must now ask you two to depart," he commanded. The women looked back at the man in shock.

"Old man, are you nuts?" Gabrella smirked. She suddenly found the end of the Communicator's staff pointing close to her nose.

"You know the rules," he said. "Only one side can be here at a time. Even if one had been here before the other, if the other side should appear, both sides must depart. It keeps the balance and the order."

"That is so much bull," the Demon-Goddess spat. "They are here all the time!" she said gesturing towards Katherine. She stood quietly to one side allowing her alternate to vent herself. "Why should we be excluded!"

"This is not an equal argument," the one-eyed man stated as he brought the end of his staff down again making a stone spark. "There are no demons buried in the walls of this town, so naturally they have the right to be here. And if your side had not attempted to infiltrate those in our care, we would not have had to start a flow of Holy Water to protect our charges."

"It is not an equal argument, Washi," Gabrella snarled. "The demon world is affected by this as well. Where is our representative?"

"You do have your door on the western wall," the Communicator stated, now pointing the head of his staff at her. "That's something that even Heaven does not have."

Gabrella growled and flung her arms and wings wide scattering some near her and making Jester hang on as she tossed him about. "**THE SKY IS THEIR DOORWAY!**" she shouted. "**THEY DON'T NEED ANY SILLY DOOR IN THE WALL!**"

The Old Communicator took one step towards her with the staff. Rakka could have sworn she saw it start to glow, though it was smoking slightly.

"I am not at liberty to argue what your own father agreed to, Gabrella of the Order of the Styx," he now rumbled through the mask on his face. "Please do not make me invoke this."

She stepped back. "Human, you do rank me," she cursed. "Very well… you will take care of Claudius, correct?"

Rakka sat back, shocked that the demon seemed worried over him. She also noticed that the doctor seemed busy only with this girl that had come with them.

"I'll get to him soon enough, Gabby," Hipp said, "but you know the rules, a Haibane gets my service first over any of us in the Corporation."

Rakka sat up clutching the hand in hers harder. "What! No! Isn't there someone else that can help the Professor?"

Gabrella grunted. "I couldn't have brought anyone else what with all that equipment Hipp was carrying."

Rakka felt the hand squeeze hers and she looked down. Ptolemy was shaking his head.

"Penance child," he whispered. "This is our penance… it is our… job… to care for… the Hai…"

"Professor?" Rakka asked him. His hand had gone slack in hers. "Pops? POPS! POPS!"

Hipp stared at her. He looked at the Communicator, who shot him a look and nodded. He leapt over to his friend's side and pounded on his chest.

"Where did you get that name?" he asked her as he did CPR in Ptolemy's chest.

Rakka was in uncontrollable tears. Toki had to gather her up and pull her away so that the doctor could do his work.

"Claudius?" Sol asked as she saw the commotion beside her. She reached out wanting to take the hand that was extended out towards hers. She found a smaller green hand in hers instead.

Sol rolled slightly and felt two hard plates on her back thunk off her. Her wings felt sore and achy. She looked up at Jester and found him crying.

"Are we in Glie?" she asked him.

"Glie," he whispered. "We in Glie are we…"

She turned his hand over and saw the blisters that were still there behind his new fingers. She started to cry herself. "I'm sorry Jester," she told him. "That must have been painful for you."

He smiled through his wet face. "Demons have hearts too," he told her. "Friends few, when find, we don't loose no like."

Sol smiled and wiped a tear from Jester's face. She then saw over his shoulder a woman in white robes and huge wings looking down at her.

"The angel," she gasped. "Please… don't be here for Mr. Ptolemy… please…"

Katherine shook her head and stepped back.

Jester felt two sharp taps on his shoulder. He looked back and saw Hipp still pounding on the old man's chest. "Hey you," Hipp asked him, "can you discharge electricity?"

Jester perked up. "Batteries we are!" the demon said proudly smacking his chest with his fist and coughing.

"Get over here!" the doctor said as he whipped out his shears and started to cut Ptolemy's shirt. He exposed his chest and pulled out some salve. He smeared some in two spots on the scientist.

"Put your fingers here and get ready to zap him," he told the demon.

Jester grinned and got a nasty look on his face as he began to power up.

"Jester," he heard and looked up at his sister. "Only one-third power."

"Ah… yes," he said and toned it down a bit.

"Okay," Hipp said as he cleared the body. "One – two…"

"WAIT!" Rakka yelled as she leapt over to Sol's side and held her back. She had almost grabbed the old man's hand.

"Hurt you try to get?" Jester scolded her.

Hipp took this moment to ready a needle of stimulant. He injected it into the scientist and stepped back. "Okay, again… All in one shot Jester," he told the demon. "One, two, NOW!"

Jester fired his energy into the man making him flinch. The doctor stepped down over the body again and placed his finger on Ptolemy's neck.

"Good… a pulse again," he said. "We must get him out of here and to the hospital as soon as possible."

"He does have a time limit here," the Communicator said. "How long had he been in Tripoli?"

"About three hours," Sol said. "Would the time in the waterway count as well?"

The Communicator shook his head. "No child. That time would have been in the outside world. You have made a remarkable journey, one we thought would have been impossible for one like you."

She smiled weakly but returned to staring at the man on the ground before them. He was breathing again at least. She looked at the demon that was standing over his head. The look on his face was different – sadness was crossing it. She had always been told that jinns were evil, demonic and always nasty. This one had been an imp at first, but he was a likable sort. She watched as a red woman behind him reached down and picked him up.

A red woman?

"Well, if it's time we should go, then let us do so," Gabrella said to her brother. She looked about and saw no sign of her rival. "Now just where did that angel go?"

The Communicator pointed up. "She is following my edict. Will you?"

Gabrella snorted. "I may return, you never know." She turned towards Hypocrites and blew him a kiss. "Nice date," she said with a wink and then launched herself skywards. Both she and her brother vanished in a teleport move.

Hipp shook his head as he opened up a folding stretcher he had pulled from his kit.

A commotion ran through the center of Glie that day. Four Scars and a banished man were coming to the hospital with Ptolemy and a new Haibane in distress. Joshua, Hipp, Tom and Chip were the stretcher-bearers, while the two Watchers carried Sol with their staffs under her legs and her arms over their shoulders. Cinder, Toki and Rakka carried the doctor's equipment. The procession was trailed by the Communicator. As they had passed the Hill of Winds, the group were joined by Midori and Hyohko, both of whom had been assisting the work crews on the Wind Farm generators with parts brought down from the Factory area.

The town had been alerted by Kana, who had been up in the clock tower working on greasing the gears. She had been taking a break out on the service walk and was using her old pair of binocular to see what was going on that day. When she spied Rakka in her robes heading for town she knew there was trouble – she came out of the tunnels in those only when there was any. Then she saw Ptolemy on the stretcher and she panicked. She ran into the clock works and pulled the manual bell ringer, making it chime repetitively.

"What fool set the bell ringing!" the clock-master shouted as Kana raced by.

"I did you old crow!" she shouted back. "Rakka and a bunch of people are bringing old man Ptolemy into town on a stretcher!"

She was shocked to see that it was her boss out the door first.

Nemu and Hikari quickly had joined Kana as they all ran for the south of town. It had been lunch time, and they had seen their fellow Old Homer dashing by and out of instinct followed her. Many others soon followed as the exit south was quickly filled with town folk.

Koi straightened his collar as he departed the hospital. People were rushing by and he wondered why. He entered the alley to one side of the building knowing it was a short cut to the south end of town.

A woman stood before him. She had long flowing golden hair and the most incredible blue eyes he had ever seen. She seemed to be praying and showed an aura that made everything else vanish. He stopped and blinked.

"Err… do I know you?" he asked her. Something in his mind told him he should.

"You do, and you will again, Haibane Koi," she said as she stepped up to him. She placed her arms around his shoulders and kissed him.

Koi stood in shock at the sudden contact she had made. His mind felt alive and charged with energy. She broke the kiss and placed her head against his forehead.

"Remember," she said. "Remember all…"

Koi rocked backwards, his world swirling. He felt as if he were falling. He knew he was falling. He knew it would hurt when he landed, but this falling felt… good?

He woke up and the woman was gone. He was leaning against the side of the building in a cold sweat.

"Rakka," the old Communicator said as he stepped beside her on the path, "would you have your sisters and brothers at Old Home care for Sol?"

Rakka looked at him. "Is that her name? Of course sir, we would be happy to take care of her… but where does she come from? I still don't quite understand…"

He placed his hand on her shoulder. "In time, all will come clear to you child. In time."

"Put him down! Put him down!" the doctor called out. "He's going into full arrest again!" As they did, Hipp started in on the CPR again as the towns people began to arrive.

"Oh god, what's he doing?" Kana gasped as she skidded to a halt. Hipp looked over at her.

"Kana, go back to the hospital," he ordered between strokes. "Have them send the portable defibrillator, got that?"

She nearly looked at him cross-eyed. "The what?" she asked.

Hipp had no time for this. "The portable heart-shocker," he bellowed. "HURRY!"

"Umm," a man dressed in a hospital orderly's garb said as he stopped Kana, "I don't think that will work, sir," he said with a quiver in his voice. "It's not charged up…"

Hipp stopped and looked at the man. "It's not what?"

The man looked nervous and squirmed a bit. "Plugging it in caused a shortage of power to parts of the hospital, so the director said that it could be left unplugged…"

"Of all the incredible…" Hypocrites murmured. "Cinder, drop those things you're carrying and come here!" He pointed to where he was. "Put your legs beside Claudius just like that… good… now lock your fingers together and place them on his chest and do the following… one, two, PUSH! One, two PUSH! Got that?"

She started doing it, though not very hard. "Why am I doing this?" she asked.

"You're working for his heart," Hipp said as he nodded to the others to lift the body back up. "Push harder!" he added as they now started down the path in a trot. Kana grabbed the one side of the stretcher to steady it and was then joined by Midori. Hikari and Nemu grabbed the other, and soon others in the crowd were helping keep it from rocking as Cinder pounded away.

Koi staggered out from the alley and saw the onrushing people as they were heading for the hospital. He shook his head to clear the cobwebs and realized he was about to be trampled.

"Open the doors!" Hipp yelled ahead.

Koi swung the one door open as the orderly ran up and opened the second. "Gurney and crash cart STAT!" he yelled as the crowd flowed against the building like a wave. Hipp and the stretcher bearers entered first followed by the two Community Watchers with Sol. Rakka, Toki and Hyohko followed with the doctor's equipment. The Old Communicator was the last in. He turned to those behind him and raised his staff.

"News will be passed along when we have it," he told them. "Please be patient and wait out here." With that the doors swung shut.

* * *

**Incident Report 8747E-29A-B.**

_Hypocrites' recommendations forthwith shall be invoked. The chairman of the hospital has been removed, and electrical systems are currently being upgraded. A system to deal with emergencies more efficiently are being looked over by the board._

_The board recognizes and morns with the family of Claudius Ptolemy for the passing of their loved one. To the question, was he supposed to die, since his contract with the attic stated that he would not leave this world until his work was complete, Lawyers in Justinian's department can only surmise that the release of Bakuu of the Seventh Realm as reason for his departure._

_**- End.**_

Mabel rustled in her cage. Her usual cracker that she would attack when fed was being ignored. She would rattle her beak against the wires and caw.

"I guess she wants to get out," Plato noted as he saw Janice stand back from the flaying bird. He unlatched the door and opened it up. Mabel jumped onto the door-perch and looked at them with her black beady eyes.

Janice picked up a ribbon and medallion that the crow would wear on missions and placed it over her head. Mabel grabbed it with her beak and tossed the metal over her shoulder so it would be on her back. She jumped down and launched herself out the window in the roof of the room.

"It must be nice to be so free at times," Janice noted as the bird vanished over the edge of the windowsill. Plato only nodded.

"I still think it's strange," Rhea said as she looked over the Incident Report. "I could have sworn that the contract between Claudius and the attic was not until ALL the saints were free that he'd be allowed to… well, you know…"

"It's still in debate," Plato said as he sat down. "Damn lawyers – keeping us here for an eternity!"

Janice leaned against the wall and looked out the window. "I still wonder… I wonder about what Hipp said… about Rakka calling him 'Pops'… how did she remember that?"

"I take it that's what she used to call him when she was a child before she arrived in Glie?" Plato asked. Janice nodded.

"She used to call her grandfather Pop-Pop when she was very young," Janice said as she held back her emotions. "Her mother had to tell her that Claudius wasn't her grandfather when she started to call him that as well, so she would call him 'Mr. Pop' and then only Pops as she grew older. That would be when Claudius would take me up to their apartment to baby-sit of course…"

Dante burst into the room. He looked tired and worn, and his hair was all frazzled. He glanced about as if startled to see anyone was there. "Boss, we've got trouble!" he exclaimed as he breathlessly sat down and dropped his head on the console.

"What is it now?" Plato rumbled in an exacerbated tone. They really didn't need more, the week had all ready been bad enough…

"Boss, the attic is all up in arms," Dante said while talking to the floor. "Ptolemy never arrived."

"What!" the three others in the room yelled. Janice quickly sat down at her position at her controls and began bringing up her monitors.

"I can't believe he would have gone to the basement," Plato grunted. "You checked on that I would assume?"

Dante nodded as he raised his head. "As soon as they informed me that they had lost his signal I checked. The basement said they didn't have him either. It's as if he just… vanished…"

"Oh god…" Janice gasped.

Plato stood up and leaned over her shoulder. "What? What?"

She pointed to a reading some four hours earlier. A line rose out of Glie then stopped.

"Apogee Report, launch at zero, zero, zero, one, nine, two, zero, apogee," the automatic system said. "Return trajectory, zero, zero, zero, four, three, zero, one…"

"My god, he returned," Plato said quietly. "He returned to Glie…"

Kana saw the crow land on the wall across from her bedroom window. She didn't feel like tossing a rock at it today, she only felt like crying. Hikari had been beside herself ever since the doctors had pronounced the old man deceased. Few at Old Home felt the need to get up the next day. Even the town itself seemed quiet and still as the mayor had decreed a day of mourning.

Rakka had been keeping busy, tending to needs around Old Home and taking care of their injured visitor. Mostly, it was in the form of joint weeping fits, Sol latching onto her Haibane sister and the both of them crying their eyes out repetitively. The foreigner's wings required constant work with the casts on them to help them heal. Rakka needed to open the clamp-like devices to add treatment balm to the burns every hour or so, and Sol was also suffering from the same type of fever that she herself had gone through when she mistakenly touched the wall unprotected. The medication she had used then did not seem to be as effective on their visitor. Nemu figured it was probably because the stock on hand was a bit old and had gone to the pharmacy in town to fetch a fresh prescription.

Sol refused to lay down most of the time, fever or not. She had found a rocking chair and a knitted shawl to wrap herself in. Hypocrites would be unable to see her for a few days since he had nearly gone over his time limit the day before, so she would be under the care of these sisters and brothers she had never known before yesterday. And then there was the little demon who had started this all… could she really blame him? He had tried to help their stricken friend as well. Confusion ran rampant through her mind.

"He found me you know," she told Rakka.

"Huh?" she asked.

Sol rocked back letting the wing clamps clap against each other as they swung between the rungs of the chair. "Mr. Ptolemy… he was the one who found my cocoon in Tripoli…" She swayed back and forth. "He was like a father to me I guess… if Haibane are allowed to have a father that is…"

Rakka sat on the edge of the guest bed. "I guess he was to many of us… I only met him about three months ago, but I felt I knew him all my life." She laid back and examined the ceiling. "Sol? What's Tripoli like?"

Sol looked at her then out the window at the bright spring day that greeted her. "It's nothing like this town," she said. "Tripoli is hot all year… there's little if any green like here. It's sandy and yellow all around, and the south is nothing but dunes. But the date and olive trees near the center of town are plentiful this time of year and the smell is sweet." She sighed.

"You miss it?"

Sol looked over at the girl on her bed. "I miss my friends the most… Nebo, Cicero, Abdullah, the Little Feathers…" She returned to looking out at the trees in the courtyard. "I do hope I see them again…"

Jester sat in the green void that he almost called home. He had been through many questions and near torments for information on just how he got out. Even Corporation Agents had visited him – a rare and dangerous situation, as they had the capability of bringing in Armageddon, a strange overseer who could make your day quite unpleasant. With him or her (he wasn't quite sure which) there, he had little choice but to explain in detail, or in the best his broken English could muster, how he had broken out of the zone. He had hidden in a lunchbox of one of the workers coming in to repair the power system in Tripoli. He was found out when the person found his lunch eaten, and something in his box burping in his face.

"It is unbecoming for a demon to mope," his sister had said, though he knew she was feeling hurt as well. She only visited this area on brief occasions before… and to have her sitting behind him like she had been for hours and contemplate the green like she had was… unusual… to say the least.

He had watched the daily exchange of Corporation humans to the Holy Sites with little want to torment or hassle them. In fact, some had been rather mean in his direction when they would see him as they passed.

The fun had been lost. He left the zone for other places. Maybe that dog-boy he had seen in the past in a lower dimension would be an adventure… at least there would be other demons there.

Koi contemplated all that had occurred the day before. The girl, Ptolemy, that GIRL, the new Haibane… THAT GIRL… It swirled in his aching head. What had she meant by 'remember'? Had he forgotten something? And why had she been so… powerful? If he was supposed to remember something, why couldn't he do so?

He meandered through the building, bouncing off walls and corners as he went. The only sounds he heard in Old Home that day was either the Young Feathers being their usual squealing selves, or crying of the elder residents. It felt odd to see the contrasts. Even the work being done on the building was silent, as the workers for the day shift were off. He wandered into the courtyard and found an Adirondack Chair to flop down in. He sat and listened to the breeze rustle the spring leaves as the morning moved along.

He heard something crack. He looked about. He didn't see anything except a crow on the edge of the wall that surrounded the yard. Maybe it had stepped on a loose terracotta tile as it bounced across the ledge.

The bird cawed at him. He looked up at it again and saw a medallion around its neck – that was odd. It cawed again and gestured to its left. That was odd as well.

Then he saw it – a cracked tile that was raised up a little as one end slipped a bit, and something was being backlit by the sunlight from under it. Koi felt his hair on his neck raise. He looked about and saw one of the contractor's ladders lying on the ground. He quickly hauled it up and planted it against the wall and ran up.

"Rakka! RAKKA!" he shouted. Sol and Rakka were seated on the balcony outside the guest room and looked over at the boy on the ladder.

Koi examined the two leaves that had greeted him on the wall. The sprout was rapidly expanding, and the early signs of a cocoon were developing.

"Damn, I pranged*," he thought. "Uhhh… what a headache… I'm going to have… to… talk… with… Hipp? What the hell?"

He was under water, or at least it felt like water… he could feel the fluid in his lungs and air bubbles were trickling out of his mouth. He laughed to himself, letting a large burst come from his nose.

"This is L-C-L," he told himself. "I'm in a cocoon? How the hell did I wind up in a cocoon?"

He opened his eyes and looked about. The fluid stung his face at first. "So this is what it's like in one of these… I'll have to report it when I get out… I wonder which zone I'm in…"

Then a thought struck him. "Why do I remember everything? Plato, Dante… Janice… My god, for me to have gone this route… I had to have died… fascinating… Interesting, look at my hands… they're so much younger looking than before… I wonder what age I'll come out as… does this mean that not all the Haibane are children from the human side of the walls?" He clenched his fist and released it. "Humm… no more carpal-tunnel… nice."

"You shall return," he heard. Was there someone outside his cocoon? Had someone found him already?

"Who is that?" he called out, frothing the fluid before his face. Speaking with a mouth full felt gross.

"Your job is not complete, Claudius Ptolemy," another said to him. He looked about his world and saw shadows. Forms were gathering around him - many forms and shapes. He swallowed some L-C-L and gagged.

"Ah, then my contract is still invoked?" he replied.

"Of course," another said. "Your work is not complete."

"We trust you to do for us what you have done for our sister," the first voice said. He looked back and found a face looking at him.

"Ah, a saint," he said. "Was it you who saved me then?"

The woman nodded and kissed him on the forehead. "We place our trust in you, valiant knight," she said. "You and your friends are our release."

Ptolemy sighed and placed his hand on the woman's cheek. "You are all my children, my charges… of course I shall find a way to release you. You are my sins that I must bare, and I must right my wrongs that I did to you."

The woman smiled and pulled back. A man reached out beside her and offered his hand to him to shake.

"We trust you, Claudius Ptolemy," he said.

As he shook the man's hand, he suddenly realized something and blushed. "You know, I feel a bit odd…"

"Pardon?" the saint asked.

"Well… it feels odd greeting you all like this… and I don't have a stitch on…"

"Mabel!" Rakka cried as she scampered up the ladder. "Mabel, is that you?"

The crow cawed at her and lighted on her shoulder as she made it to the top of the wall. Koi had climbed onto the shingles to allow her up. Sol had followed, but had to sit back down in the chair that Koi had vacated earlier.

"Do you think it's him?" she called up. "Do you think it's Claudius?"

Rakka came to the top rung and stared at the seedling as it twitched and grew before her eyes. "I don't know," she said expectantly. "I've never seen one grow this fast though!"

"At this rate, it'll be the size of a basketball by this afternoon!" Koi said. He saw the bird on Rakka's shoulder and blinked. "Do you know this bird?"

"That's Mr. Ptolemy's pet crow, Mabel," Sol called up. "Mabel, is Claudius in there?"

The bird cawed at her and jumped onto the wall.

"I wouldn't know if that was a yes or a no," Koi said as he scratched his head.

"What are you two doing on the wall?" they heard. Rakka climbed up another rung and saw Nemu looking up at them.

"Nemu! Nemu, come see! Pops is back!" she called.

"Pops?" she replied.

Rakka tried to unscramble her head. "The Professor! Mr. Ptolemy!"

Nemu stepped back. "What are you saying? That's impossible! He died, Rakka."

The crow cawed at her.

"Nemu, look!" Rakka called down. "It's Mabel! She found a cocoon! It HAS to be Mr. Ptolemy!"

"And you're saying that in a place like this, where angels walk the Earth, that it is impossible?" Koi added.

Nemu gasped as she now saw the top of the sprout. "My god! Look at that!"

Kana burst out of the dorms with Hikari in tow. "What did you say!" she shouted.

Katherine bowed before her elder as a sword tapped her shoulders. Her robes changed and swirled and colorful garments emerged and wrapped her body. Her hair was tied and bundled and marks now adorned her face along her cheeks and forehead. She felt an energy swell within her as she renewed her vows before the grand council.

"You have made us proud, Katherine of the Seventh Realm," the elder told her and the room. "Arise, Katherine, Goddess Second Class."

She stood and extended her wings. Her halo settled into her hair as her feathers were tinged in gold. She bowed again before her elder then turned to face her fellow members of the Seventh as their new commandant.

Banners on staffs were stamped on the floor seven times and somewhere lightning burst to each strike. Those behind the bearers began to chant.

_We are the Seventh!_

_To protect and defend!_

_We are the Seventh!_

_To our God and our land!_

_We are the Seventh!_

_Every woman every man!_

_We are the Seventh!_

_First to battle first to stand!_

_**HOOYAA!**_

Katherine folded her wings and bowed to her league. She looked up at them and raised her hand.

"Who are WE!" she called.

"THE SEVENTH!" was their reply in unison.

"LOUDER!" she shouted back.

**"THE SEVENTH!"** they thundered in return.

Outside, Katherine smiled to her comrades. Inside, she ached. She had not wanted this position, but had it thrust upon her by her seniors. The first released by the walls of the Holy Sites - that was all they cared about. And with her successful intervention with the Haibane Koi and the rescue of Haibane Sol, she was seen as an angel that could be depended upon.

But the loss of Ptolemy wasn't expected, nor was the fact that he was now in a cocoon according to the report given to her prior to the ceremony. It troubled her that they had not foreseen that, much as they had failed to foresee just what would happen when Man attempted to capture God's Power.

The position of Goddess as well… rarely given out to lowly angels… normally, the Goddesses were born into this stature, and angels were their servants, their grunts some had said. She was happy to now be one of the elite, but she knew she had been given as high a position that would be possible for her. The best she would now be ever to do would be to receive a higher license on her powers. She also now had to wear a regulator to prevent overpowering herself – it felt uncomfortable as it dangled on her ear.

And she also now had to deal with another new situation – a proto-angel would be assigned to her, and as custom to her new rank, paced inside her as her assisting force when called upon. She hated having to subject an angel to that, as it deprived that soul of any freedom of will – it would almost be as bad as being back in the wall.

She left the hall of the Seventh to visit the care center for these angels. She entered the white room and found a maelstrom.

"SETTLE DOWN!" a woman shouted from a desk. "SETTLE DOWN OR I'LL GIVE YOU SOMETHING TO WORRY ABOUT!" She sat down with a thud and cursed.

"Damn, I could use a cigarette," she snorted.

"The little feathers being a nuisance?" Katherine asked her.

Reki smiled. "Naa, just the usual. Just what I would expect though. I just get this feeling that they had me in training back in Glie for this position, taking care of the Young Feathers there and all…"

Katherine laughed. "I know what you mean."

Reki leaned back and put her hands behind her head. "So, I take it that with these fancy new duds that the ceremony is complete?"

Katherine looked at her clothes. "I guess…" She sighed. "I never really wanted to become a Goddess… at least not this way…"

Reki laughed. "There's another way?"

Katherine nodded. "Just ask your angels here, they will tell you."

Reki snorted. "Well, personally, I never thought as heaven having military service either. Goddess is a rank - interesting…"

"Exactly," Katherine stated. "Goddess can be both a rank and a being, but they can't be both. I might now be one in power and strength, but I will never truly be one. I can always be busted down to angel again… you can't do that to a true Goddess."

"Well that stinks," Reki commented. "Maybe I'll put that in my next painting – The Fall of a Goddess… Then again, maybe not… they weren't too happy with my last one, were they?"

"I thought it was good," Katherine defended her. "Just because you spoke your mind with your paints means nothing… Kuu wasn't too happy though…"

"I needed a model, sue me!" Reki laughed. "Besides, she's so different than when we were in Glie… All grown up like she is… less of a stumble-bum."

Katherine smiled at the though of her new friends from the place she had been trapped in. She missed Glie, even though she had only been there a day or two before. In some cases, it was more restful than here.

"So, who have I been assigned?" she asked.

Reki got a nasty look on her face. "Oooh, you've been given a prime one," she said with a smirk. "She's called Serendipity and Faith."

"Serendipity and Faith," Katherine repeated. "Well, at least I can just call her Serendipity…"

They both burst out laughing.

Reki looked up at the massive cloud of proto-angels above her and tapped a bell on her desk. "NUMBER FORTY-TWO! NOW SERVING NUMBER FORTY-TWO!"

A streamer of white swirled down off the ceiling to the desktop and formed a tiny egg-shaped object. Reki picked it up and held it out to Katherine.

"Now remember," she told her, "you have to break these in just like a horse. She'll be a bit rough at first, but with a little training, she'll be a fine companion for you, okay?"

Katherine smiled. "Thanks Reki," she said. "Are you up for lunch today?"

She shook her head. "Can't," was her reply. "I promised Rem I'd go with her and her husband to the Celestial College to discuss human nature again with her class." She winked and held her hand up to her cheek. "I think it's because she thinks I look like her sister and she wants to confuse them."

Katherine giggled. She looked at the tiny egg in her hand and contemplated it.

She held her breath.

She then tossed it into her mouth and swallowed it.

She gagged and coughed.

A glass was handed her.

"You'd probably best try to down that with some water," Reki noted to her.

Jester sat on the side of a road in Feudal Japan waiting for something to happen.

He sighed.

"Boring is this," he said to himself.

"Hey, you're telling me," the little fox-demon said beside him. "When those two are at it, nothing gets done around here!"

They both sighed.

_**"SIT BOY!"**_

oOo

* **prang** (prang) v. Term used in rocketry (hobby). To prang refers to when a rocket lands without a proper recovery system release – to impinge on the ground nose first. If done so without the rocket's nose section attached, see **core sample**.

**_Play the RPG Sadako's Well on AnimeMangaWorld! - Email for the address_**

**_Join the Renmei - Visit the C2 Community and Discussion Forums of Charcoal Feathers of Glie & Surrounding Territories here on FFN!_**

Characters from "Sadako's Well" - Chip and Toki created by R.A. Stott ©2004-2011 S.E. Nordwall & R.A. Stott – Used with Permission

Gabrella from "Team Rocket's Haunted Hayride – The RPG" ©2004-2011 The Lugia Project/Denivan Media Services – Used with Permission

L–C-L reference – "Neon Genesis Evangeleon" ©2004-2011 Gainax/Project Eva

References to "InuYasha" ©2004-2011 Rumiko Takahashi/Shogakukan/VIZ Entertainment

Goddess system from "Ah! My Goddess" ©2004-2011 Kosuke Fujishima

Rem from "TRIGUN" ©2004-2011 Yasuhiro Nightow

Reference to 'Alex' (Rem's husband) ©2004-2011 S.E. Nordwall – Used with Permission

Weapons from "MEN IN BLACK" ©2004-2011 Scott Mitchell Rosenberg/Malibu Comics

Men in Black characters used from "Serial Experiments Lain" ©2004-2011 Yoshitoshi ABe

Characters from "Haibane-Renmei" ©2004-2011 Yoshitoshi ABe

©2004-2011 The Golden Halo Project/DMS

Edit and Remastered – 1106.11


	6. The Boy With No Wings

**.**

**2 0 1 1 - R E V I S I O N**

**- O -**

**H A I B A N E - R E N M E I:**

**C O R P O R A T I O N**

Chapter Six

**The Boy with No Wings**

By R. A. Stott

Original FFN #2088681/6

Originally Published 12/25/04

All work had stopped.

Painting inside the newly rebuilt north wings of Old Home ceased, at least for the day. The head foreman/engineer from The Corporation, Virgil, had shown up, and had pulled all his crews to a new emergency project. He had them haul a large pile of spare wood from the reconstruction site down to the wall near the main southwest gate.

"Make it at least three feet wide on either side," Virgil was saying as a makeshift scaffolding was erected around the burgeoning cocoon that was resting on top of the terra cotta tiled structure. Town folk, most of whom would stay away from the home of the Haibane, were meandering about to see a rare event – a cocoon out in the open. The rumor that its contents might be that of their friend Ptolemy was also running rampant.

"Will somebody get this crow out of here?" one of the workers complained.

"Hey! Hurt one feather on that bird's head and I'll give YOU a halo to look at!" Kana barked as she held a plank in position while one of the carpenters drove it home with his nail-gun. Mabel had not moved from her perch on or around the sphere. She would caw down on those below her as if directing the work.

"The idea is that if he breaks out, he'll be caught by the landings we're installing," Director Plato explained to the local news man Haibane as they watched and walked under the work. It had been quite the surprise to see all these Corporation big-wigs there to the inhabitants of the old building, especially since they arrived via a portal that exited through the seldom used northern arch. But having them show up all at once only drove home the fact to the Homers that this was indeed their friend Ptolemy in the cocoon.

"Is it true that this is only the second time you've actually entered Glie director?" Koi asked him as he jotted down what he had been told.

Plato bellowed a thunderous laugh. "I've been here a few more times than that," he told the boy. He looked up at the ball on the wall as the railing was being mounted around it. "Claudius was here many more times than I ever was… which was required by his job, mind you… he certainly was correct about this place though…"

"So how do you intend for the fluid to drain out?" Janice asked as she examined the structure from underneath.

"Ea?" a carpenter replied as he looked down on her from above.

She shook her head. "L-C-L is very viscous when it first is exposed to the atmosphere. It will be extremely slick just after it bursts… if the planks are that way when he comes out of there, he could slip right over the side as well!"

Virgil stood up and looked at the work that had been done. The floor boards had been butted hard against one another, making for a nearly solid flat surface. He picked up a drill and chucked up a large auger bit. He then proceeded to drill drain holes in a semi-circle on each platform surrounding the cocoon.

"Better," Janice said as she brushed off the sawdust that had fallen on her.

Virgil shook his head as he un-chucked the drill and handed back to one of his crew. "Something tells me that no one here has ever built an outdoor deck before," he griped to himself.

From the depressed outlook that the town had been in for the last few days, there was now a festive atmosphere resounding. Even a few small tents had sprung up near the Hill of the Winds where some of the locals were serving refreshments to those gathering for an event few but the Haibane had ever witnessed first hand – the hatching of a cocoon.

"But… will I be a Haibane?" Ptolemy asked himself as he floated in his brew. "There has never been a circumstance of one, save the first residents of these Holy Sites, where a Haibane came from one as old as I was…"

"Nor has there ever been one from the ranks of the Sinners of Man," a voice told him.

Ptolemy looked up. "Ah, I was wondering when I'd hear from you… You have been rather silent about this whole thing as of late."

The voice rumbled and sighed. "The situation is difficult… The basement wishes to attend as well."

"They should be allowed to," the scientist said to the voice. "I'm supposed to be non-biased, remember?"

"But can you be?" the voice asked. "Truly in your heart…"

Ptolemy shook his head. "Of course I am biased – after all, I am human… or at least was…"

"You would rather be in the attic?"

He looked to his side. Gabrella stood there with a tear rolling down her cheek.

"That has yet to be determined," Ptolemy said to her.

"But it would be better than falling to the basement?" Katherine asked from his other side. He looked over at her and smiled.

"You tell me?" he asked her. "I was responsible for the creation of this purgatory… or is it limbo? Right now, it feels more like a fish bowl…"

He watched a grouper swim by.

"God, I hope I'm hallucinating," he mumbled.

"Depends," the fish said. "This could be your cocoon dream…"

He awoke with a start, and a face full of frothy bubbles. He looked about at the shadows that were moving about him in the broth he floated in and shook his head.

"Keep your wits, Claudius," he told himself. He laughed as he looked at his fingers and rubbed them together as he examined their reaction to the L-C-L. "You're a scientist – be objective… How could Gabrella be crying in this stuff?"

A shape moved across the back of the cocoon. He watched it as it meandered about, moving from a fuzzy blobby shape to a sharp relief of a human silhouette.

"Humm… size wise, I'd say I'm still gestating," he told himself. "Either that or I'll be much smaller than I was when I come out… I wonder why it's so bright in here?" He looked below himself and pondered the strange shape the base of the sphere was taking.

"Huh… that looks like a roof tile…"

He moved down to look at it closer and dug into the soft material with his hand. A bit of color did manage to peek through – a rusty reddish brown. He looked up at the bright light.

"That's the sun alright… Great… I'm on the roof of Old Home!" He shook his head.

Then the hatching of the boy in the woods from a few months prior flashed through his mind, especially the reaction of Hikari… because the lad had come out without any clothes on!

"Damn!" he said, gurgling more bubbles out of his mouth.

"Hey! It just went bloop!" he heard.

"They always go bloop Kana!" he shouted, again getting much too much L-C-L down his throat.

Kana blinked. "Shhh! Shhh!" she hissed as she planted her ear against the dusty side of the cocoon. Her head became covered in the ashen flakes from the surface of the sphere.

"Kana, what are you doing?" Hikari asked as she watched her fellow Homer flay her arms about to silence her.

"SHHH! I think I heard him speak my name!" she said in a half snarl to put her point over to be _QUIET!_ "Professor?" she called. "Professor, are you in there?"

She felt a tugging on her pants leg. She angrily glanced down at the person yanking her cuff and found Doc Hipp holding a stethoscope up to her. She quickly snatched them up with a "Thanks!" and stuck them in her ears. She picked up the bell of the device and gingerly placed it on the surface of the cocoon.

She sat back at the sound. A gurgling churning sound bubbled through her head. She moved it about and found other sounds – a high pitched whistle at one point, a deep grumbling at another.

"Professor?" she asked.

He saw the small dark spot that was against the side of the sphere and smiled. He moved beside it. "Hello Kana," he said without having to yell. "I take it Doctor Hypocrites just lent you his stethoscope."

Kana held her breath. She looked back at those below her, a look of shock rolling over her face. Many were holding their own breaths as they watched.

"Where's Mrs. Ptolemy?" she asked finally realizing she was suddenly missing.

Rakka sat at the kitchen table as she poured tea for the woman. Sol sat beside her with a weary look on her face. Rakka stopped what she was doing and listened.

"What's going on?" she asked. "The noise stopped…"

Sol leaned over to see out the opened door. "It looks like Kana is up with the cocoon… listening to it?" she pondered questioningly.

"Listening?" Janice asked. "Listening to what?"

Rakka shrugged. "Maybe… Mr. Ptolemy?"

Janice jumped up, forcing her chair clear back to the far wall as she did. She bolted for the door and looked up at the wall. Kana was gesturing for her to get up there, _NOW!_

"H-honey? Are you in there?" she asked nearly out of breath from her climb of the ladder and Kana handed her the scope.

There was a brief silence. She heard a gurgling and some air rumbling by. She then heard a tapping.

"Honey?"

"Oh," she then heard. "Sorry, dear… I was trying to think of something monumental to say…"

The phrasing was right, just the voice was… the voice was off a bit.

"I guess I sound odd," he said to her as she was looking back at everyone. "I'm not sure about this voice either – it's been so long since I heard it this… young…"

"Honey," she told the cocoon, "what's it like in there?"

"Ask him why he can remember me!" Kana shouted up to her.

"Ask him if he's had a dream!" Hikari added.

"Ask them to stop shouting!" Ptolemy complained. "It's like being in an amplifier in here!"

"Well that's odd," Janice noted. "The solidity of the L-C-L should actually lessen the sounds from the outside…"

"Not this stuff," Ptolemy said as he cleared out the ringing in his ears.

Janice sat down on the tiles. "Honey, how much do you remember?" she asked him.

Ptolemy contemplated this. "Let's see… I remember… Jester shocking the bejeebies out of me… next thing I know, I'm in a cocoon waiting to be hatched… I seem to be younger than I was… I'm not sure how… and I'm not sure if I'm a true Haibane or not…" He looked at the bottom of the sphere again. "Honey, I'm outdoors, aren't I?"

Janice looked about. "You can tell?" she asked.

Ptolemy laughed. "I can see the sunlight through the cocoon's surface in many spots," he told her, "and I have some tile shapes on the bottom here. I take it I'm on the roof?"

Janice grimaced as she looked at either side of the balancing act being performed by the cocoon. "Well, yes and no," she told her husband. "You're on the roof alright… you're on the wall just over the main gate."

"I'M ON THE WHAT?" Janice winced as she pulled the stethoscope away from the cocoon as it rattled a bit. When she put the bell back against it, she could hear Ptolemy moving about and muttering to himself.

Kana stumbled down the ladder as she watched the theatrics above her on the scaffolding. Rakka steadied her as she looked back at her sister Haibane.

"That… was creepy…" she said. She then grinned. "Cool, but creepy!"

"Was it him?" Rakka asked. "Was it really him?"

Kana sat down in the Adirondack chair and shook some of the cocoon's dust off her head. "It sure was," she exclaimed catching her breath. "Do you realize what this means? This proves that Haibane are from the outside, that we did have lives before the ones we have here!"

"Well of course, silly," Hikari said as she and Midori brought some hot sweet rolls out for the crew's mid-morning snack. "We knew that already…"

"We never had proof!" Kana snapped back. She looked over at the members of the Corporation near the wall and glared at them. "I bet they knew… I bet they knew all along…"

Rakka stood in front of Kana and returned the glare back at her. "So? Do you think it makes their jobs any easier?" she angrily asked her.

Kana sat back taken aback a bit by her admonishment. "Yo! Cool your jets Rakka! I was just saying…"

"The obvious," she finished for her, whether it had been the words she was searching for or not. "I think it hurts them more than helps them. Just seeing us tears at them." She looked up at Janice and noticed that she had been looking at her at that moment. "I know that it hurts her."

Kana sat back. "Maybe so, but I just get this feeling that they're hiding things from us."

"That's because they are," Koi said as he sat on the edge of the small table beside the chair. He flipped his notebook shut and watched The Corporation members as they all were busy with the activities along the wall. "But it's not surprising – they'd have to." He leaned over towards Kana. "What are the rules about talking to the Toga?"

Kana looked at him like he was nuts. "We're not allowed to talk with the Toga, of course."

"And why is that?" he continued. Kana shook her head and shrugged.

"No one knows," Hikari said.

He tapped the side of his nose and winked. "Think about it, they're from the outside… The Corporation folk are from the outside… of course they run the risk of having known any of us out there beyond the walls… And to keep the peace…"

"They have to remain silent," Rakka concluded, now sullen at the thought that her friends from outside were nearly gagged from talking about their world verses the world she knew in Glie.

Midori munched on a roll as she watched the others around the cocoon. "Hyohko told me that when he had first met Mr. Ptolemy he asked him why he never came through the main gates in town… he told him that they weren't allowed the privilege."

Kana coughed on a sweet roll. "Not allowed? Why not?"

Midori shrugged. "He didn't say. But I've talked with people in town and they say they've known Ptolemy for some time now, that he's never aged, and he's always been here when the town's needed him most."

Kana nodded. "I was surprised at when my boss blew out of the clock shop when I told him what I had seen when you were bringing him in to town," she noted gesturing at the cocoon on the wall. "I've never seen him cry before… That was creepy too…"

"Excuse me!" they now heard. "Excuse me! Pardon me! Will you PLEASE let me through?"

"That sounds like Nemu," Rakka said as she stepped over towards the arched entry to the courtyard. Looking through, she found that the exit was crowded with town folk who were trying to get too close a look at the strange ball on the wall.

"Honestly!" the housemother shouted as she thundered through the tunnel. "What are all you doing up here at the main gates?"

The crowd was almost in a frenzy as Nemu was trying to enter the compound. Someone had almost pushed her off the narrow path past the bridge. Now they were clamoring to get a closer look. They all stopped and stared as Director Plato stepped up behind the housemother and scowled at them.

"Under NO circumstances are any town folk not employed here at Old Home allowed PAST THAT BRIDGE!" he bellowed. He stuck out his huge thick arm and pointed for the group to move back beyond the new buffer zone – the creek just outside the walls of the school.

Town Watch members suddenly came around the corners of the outer wall and started a march towards the ornery crowd. They quickly pulled back as they saw their advance leaving Nemu behind to collect herself. When she turned towards the building though, she found what looked like an old woman standing before Plato.

"Does that include me, director?" she asked in a withered voice.

"Setsu…" he said in a hushed tone.

The old woman shook her head. "Bloodeagle now, you old bat," she snorted.

"What are you doing down here from the Scar's Village?" the housemother barked as she grabbed the broom that sat next to the tally boards. She stopped approaching her as Plato held his hand up.

"What are you doing here?" he asked her in a kind low voice.

She looked up at the sphere. "Seeing for myself… I heard news from those helping that Haibane child in the tunnels that Ptolemy wound up on my wall. Looks like they weren't far from the truth…"

_"YOUR_ WALL?" the housemother yelled. Plato grabbed the broom and hushed her.

One of the Town Watch stepped up to Bloodeagle. She looked over her shoulder at him or her - she wasn't quite sure which it was - with distain.

"You'd best return to your post," Plato told her.

She snorted. She pulled out her mono-eye mask and slipped it on. She looked up at the sphere again and shook her head.

"No wings… he will have no wings," she mumbled as she turned and headed back down the path.

Katherine alighted atop the bell tower and watched the woman leave the others behind. She looked at the sphere and wondered what she meant.

"Quite a quandary we have here, isn't it?"

She looked about. That voice… what was she doing here? And why could she not see her?

"Down here dear," she then heard. She looked over the edge to see Gabrella waving at her from the north window of the clock room.

"What are you doing here?" Katherine demanded.

"That's being bantered about quite a lot lately, isn't it?" the Lady Demon said with a coy wink. "I see you've been given the rank of Goddess… well done my dear!"

Katherine dropped through the roof into the room below. "You know we are not allowed here at the same time!" she angrily stated.

Gabrella laughed. "Who's to know? They're too busy dealing with Claudius the Ball Baby!" She now broke into hysterical laughter.

Katherine stormed up to her and slapped her across the face. "How DARE you! How dare you even say that! He has done more for us…"

"He also was responsible for us being in this situation, remember?" the Demon-Goddess growled as she rubbed her cheek. "And how dare YOU strike me!" She now grinned. "That could be construed as an act of war you know, a Goddess striking a Demon…"

Katherine scowled. "Call it what you like, but I will not leave this time, not with Claudius in a situation like this."

"You didn't leave last time, or at least not right away," Gabrella huffed. "Did you think we wouldn't notice that you went to the hospital here in Glie to see that boy down there?" She pointed out the window at Koi.

Katherine smirked and shook her head. "I was under orders to return his memory that I removed when he was rescued from the tunnels, that is all."

Gabrella leaned against the wall. "That's the trouble with you ethereal types - you have so many secrets you wish to hide. Why do you think we in the bowels of hell have it so easy?"

Katherine laughed at the thought. "Easy? An eternity of damnation? The only ones having it easy down there are the demons! You make souls suffer!"

"How would you know that?" Gabrella half chuckled. "When was the last time you went down there to see? You've been duped by propaganda my dear. How am I to know you don't do the same up there? Or is there a reason your side insisted that the Haibane must get jobs while here in these so called Holy Zones?"

Katherine stepped back. "They what?" she quivered.

Gabrella now laughed. "Oh, that's right… you were a Saint – you missed out on the setting up of these worlds, didn't you? You weren't sentient when they said that the Haibane must toil while waiting the time they could go over these stupid walls!"

Katherine remembered the words Reki had told her the day before… _"I just get this feeling that they had me in training back in Glie for this position, taking care of the Young Feathers there and all…"_ Now it made sense! But still…

"So what if they work here or there? At least they don't fester and become loathsome beasts of burden for the likes of YOU!"

"Right," Gabrella drolled. "You just have them do it while they're here! Do you see that haggard old heap that blimp Plato was talking to?"

Katherine glanced out the window she was beside. She saw the old sin-bound woman as she was escorted away. "Yes? What about her?"

Gabrella cross her arms and made a sound of disgust. "She came to this world with the most perfect wings here – not a black spot on them! She was the perfect Haibane. But she did the one thing here that would turn them totally black, the sign of your so called sin-bound. She tried to take her own life. And worse, not just once, but TWICE!"

Katherine felt a wince of pain sweep through her at the thought of a Haibane attempting suicide. "But why? Why would she have done that?"

Gabrella stepped up to her. "Haibane can not die - at least not by their own hands. Didn't you know that either? How can you kill a dead soul? Yes they can be injured, nearly killed by accidents and stupid attempts to leave here before their time... but in the mean time, they are judged by their actions while here… their memories of where they had come from removed so that they can start with a clean slate… but their actions speak mountains to what they need to repent about."

"But, I was told that Haibane have died here before…" Katherine said as she remembered her debriefing she had after she had escaped the wall.

Gabrella threw her head back and howled. "There has not been a death of a Haibane outside of a cocoon in ANY of the zones in over two hundred years. It simply would not be allowed! And that retched soul down there is proof of that!"

Katherine looked down at the woman as she crested the hill near the wind generators. She saw that people in the road would give her a wide berth as she walked.

"But why?" she asked. "Why would she attempt something so… sinful?"

"Sinful?" Gabrella shook her head. "She's rather famous here in Glie. One day, two years into being the perfect little Haibane, she climbed the wall of Old Home right where that cocoon is now, and attempted to take flight on her own. She claimed it was because she wanted to test her wings, but the suicide note she left behind spoke for her. It seemed that she was tired of being abused by her human boss at the work she had been given here – it was the first time ever that one of the town folks was arrested for the abuse of a Haibane in such a manner. But his damage had been done. As she recovered even then she knew she had gone too far, and would never fully be the same. Her wings became black as night. Some of the younger Haibane even began calling her Old Crow instead of Setsu." She turned and watched the old lady disappear over the hill from her own window. "Tell me, which was more sinful? What she did, or what was done to her?"

"It's amazing how things happen in threes," she continued in a subdued tone. "The day she left Old Home for the Scar's Village was the day Kuramori arrived and Thido had his day of flight… now there was a unique 'Haibane' - he certainly wasn't exactly what he seemed..." She gave a short little huff of a laugh.

"How do you know all this?" Katherine asked, now a bit more concerned that this person would know information of this sort.

Gabrella looked at her over her shoulder. "It's my job to know, missy." She turned and let her wings dangle out the open window. The breeze made them sway about slightly as she sighed. "While you were playing plaque, I kept up with the locals as much as I dared," she told her. "I care more about these places than you would expect." She stared at her with her large golden yellow eyes. "We are not allowed the proper representation here. We are ridiculed and charged with a bias that is unfair and unjust." She laughed. "Have one little party that gets out of hand and they label you for an eternity!"

She flipped out of the window and launched herself into the sky, vanishing in a wisp of smoke as Katherine watched. She had a feeling that she would be seeing the demon again soon and possibly in a less friendly manner.

Evening came with a spotlight being shown against the cocoon and someone posted on the scaffolding. Most of the Corporation crew had departed for the outside world to keep their time limits fresh. Outside Old Home, the town folk had diminished to a few who insisted on staying and watching, even if it was from the opposite side of the creek. Hikari and Nemu spent the early evening offering warm drinks and Danishes to them, and taking a few one by one up to the main building to use the facilities.

For Ptolemy, it meant he finally had some time to rest. The constant squabbling and pounding outside the cocoon had been surprisingly loud. The few hours he had to talk with his wife about the life of a guppy soothed him as well. But he was tired and needed to sleep.

"Well now, this is awfully wet."

He jerked awake. Across from him sat the old woman. She was removing her mask and looking about the cocoon with the spotlight glaring behind her.

"Bloodeagle? What are you doing here in my cocoon?" Ptolemy asked. It took him a moment to realize just how strange that sounded.

"I knew I should have read The Metamorphosis all the way through," she grumbled as she used her cane to stand up. She poked him with it. "Feel like a cockroach yet?"

"Stop that!" he griped. He then realized that he was still quite naked to this woman and quickly rolled himself into a fetal ball. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY COCOON?" he bellowed.

The old lady chuckled. "What are you doing IN a cocoon, Uncle Claudius?" driving her inflections home by poking him more. "Just what do you think you're doing in a cocoon?"

The scientist scowled. "I know what I'm doing here! I've been told what I'm doing here! Janice told me about the Apogee Report. And the Saints told me that my work is not finished."

She chuckled again. "Are you sure? Are you sure that this isn't just retribution? And are you sure of just what you will be when you emerge from this hibernation you're in?"

He rolled back while still in the ball position and looked up at her. "What do you mean?" he asked, hearing the young voice he had now tremble slightly. It annoyed him.

"Be you a Haibane do you suppose? Or are you just that same old man that I knew when I was a young Charcoal?" She turned and showed her scars to him.

"Wings - They're not all that they make them up to be." She huffed. "Charcoal feathers, ha… Charcoal's a fuel you know."

Ptolemy pondered her. "Setsu, why are you so bitter? Was it because no one listened to you when your employer was molesting you?"

She shook. "The town did not listen… my sisters and brothers did not listen… only you and Thido listened… but that did not help. Even after you left and the problem was supposedly solved, no one would listen to me… not even my father…"

Ptolemy unraveled himself. "Father? Oh, yes... your father..."

Bloodeagle turned and smiled. "Yes, my father. You know I know who my father was… saw him today I did… You'd be surprised what you can learn when you visit Sinner's Rock and meditate on it for a day or so… It returns your life to you, as it was… no… correction, it unlocks what was barred… I am there now. That is why I can talk with you."

Ptolemy stared at her. "I know... I tried to keep you from using it so much. Setsu, look at yourself. You're not that old, but the rock had withered you."

"It's Bloodeagle!" she barked. "And better off withered and bent than ignorant. Besides, breaking nearly every bone in your body isn't exactly a healthy thing to do!" She looked up at the top of the sphere and sighed.

"I must leave," she said while looking back at him. Ptolemy was surprised to see that she now looked like the young girl he had known long ago – the small black-haired girl with a pair of delicate oval glasses named Maia, the daughter of Plato. "A final thing though… Uncle Claudius..."

As she said this, a convulsion throbbed through the cocoon making Ptolemy cover his ears in pain. He looked up at her and saw she was fading away.

"Do you remember the last time a Haibane died in Glie?" she asked him. "At least, that you _know_ of…" she added under her breath.

He winced in pain. "G-Girl 194?" he said as another convulsion swept through his world. "She… she drowned!"

Bloodeagle nodded as she reverted to her old form. "Drowned… in her own cocoon…" She looked up then vanished.

"What? Yes, yes I remember!" he spurted, frothy bubbles surrounding him as another burst of pressure squeezed the life out of him. He felt himself grow cold as the spotlight grew dim in his eyes.

"The terra cotta… heh…" he laughed to himself. "The terra cotta… it made the bottom of the cocoon too tough… Have… to… get… to the… top… or I'll drown…"

The young man on the scaffold looked up. The forecast was not for rain that night. Yet still, he was getting pelted by thick drops of water.

"CAW! CAW!"

He looked up as Mabel launched herself off the top of the cocoon. She fluttered and flapped as the rain continued to hit him.

"But the stars are out," he said. Just then he heard some sounds from those across the stream from him.

"What's with that crow?" he heard.

"Look! The cocoon! It's leaking!"

He stepped back from the sphere and looked up. A streamer of fluid was shooting into the air from the top of the ball. He pulled out a rod-like device and waved it over its surface.

"CAW!" shouted Mabel.

"Pressure… pressure's dropping!" he said as he scrambled to activate a communicator. "O-base!" he yelled, waking Koi who was in the Adirondack Chair. "O-base! It's cracking open along the top! It's loosing pressure!"

"L-C-L will become normal water when it looses pressure," the unit replied. "You must break the cocoon, or Ptolemy will drown!"

Mabel landed on the top of the sphere again and started pecking hard.

"Hey!" Koi yelled up. "What's wrong? What's going on?"

The man slammed his fist against the side of the cocoon. He brought it back in a grimace of pain. "We've got to break this cocoon open, or he'll drown! Find a hammer or something – anything to break this open!"

Koi jumped up. "What? Are you insane? You can't do that!"

"A Haibane must break free on their own," Nemu yelled from the balcony across from them, having just come out of the guest bedroom.

"It's tradition," Sol added.

The man smacked his hands on the railing of the scaffolding. "And the last Haibane who died in Glie did so by drowning in her own cocoon!" he screamed, making the town folk behind him gasp. "His has cracked along the top! He won't be able to escape it, and if the pressure drops any further, it will be normal water he's in! HE WILL DROWN!"

That made Koi move. He ran up to the work site and looked about in the near darkness. He found a crowbar and ran back to the wall, tossing it up to the man.

"What's going on?" Rakka asked as she rubbed her eyes in time to see the first swing the man made.

The cocoon splattered apart, pouring water across the scaffolding, nearly sending the man over the edge, and dousing Koi in fluid. When they all looked back, a naked boy lay across the wooden planks.

"Has it happened?"

Bloodeagle looked up with her mono-eyed mask from the stone she was sitting on. "Can't you tell Miss G?" she asked.

Gabrella snorted as she looked towards the oddly illuminated shape of Old Home far off in the distance.

Hipp waved a flashlight back and forth over the boy's eyes to get a response. He nodded and drew a thermometer out of a sleeve.

"Say ah," he said as he looked down his throat.

"Ah, yourself," Ptolemy said from under a towel and blanket sent up to the scaffolding. "Aren't you at risk being here?"

Hipp stuck the thermometer under his tongue. "If you mean am I getting close to my thirty hours, possibly… I believe I have at least eight hours left. I'll be here though only long enough to check things out. I'll let the chief surgeon take over shortly."

Ptolemy shook his head. "No, you should let the folks here at Old Home do what they're supposed to do," he said. "It is their duty to care for those in the cocoons, not ours."

Hipp looked down at those gathered below. "Even in this situation?" he asked. "I mean, they never remembered where they came from, who they were before coming here… and they certainly did not know a person before arriving in a cocoon before."

Ptolemy made a small laughing gurgle. "Maybe so, but I'm not one to break their tradition. Have the surgeon come here then, and leave a cell phone with them to contact the control room with if needed."

The doctor pulled the thermometer out and looked at it. "You're one to talk you know," he said. "The way you were brought out was hardly traditional."

Ptolemy rocked his head to one side to look at the shattered cocoon. The hole in its side showed the way it had been fractured from the outside plainly. "I must thank whoever it was that realized the fault in my design here…" He looked back at the doctor and saw an odd expression. "What is it?"

Hipp shrugged. "I don't know, it's probably nothing… but the others, they said that the man on duty up here knew just what was going on… told them that you would drown if they didn't get you out. He even knew that L-C-L reverts back to normal water when the pressure drops."

Ptolemy dropped his head back in exhaustion. "Uhh… wasn't it one of the Haibane up here?"

"No, it was a volunteer from the work crews," Hipp told him as he put his equipment into his bag. "He also seems to have vanished."

Ptolemy gave a slight nod of his head. "Fine… call me in… the morn…" He then dozed off.

"Mr. Tolefson, you were supposed to only observe, not take action," the voice on his communicator said with a slight laugh.

"Honestly sir, I never expected it either," the man said as paraded around his apartment while drying his hair with a towel. "I was only there for the first evening shift. We thought it wouldn't break open until morning at least."

The com laughed again. "Well, good job anyway, though as soon as you can, you should get back there, since vanishing might cause undue wonder where you went."

He was about to acknowledge the order when another voice cut in saying, "Belay that Mr. Tolefson… I just reviewed the incident and the aftermath – we might have to give you a cover story… stand by…"

"Sir?" he asked as he dropped the towel on the crow bar.

"You may have told them too much," the second voice said. "But you still did a fine job for your first field assignment, Mr. Tolefson. Observer Base out."

He tapped on a patch on his uniform that he had laying on his bed to shut off the com unit.

"Yes, I must thank you as well," he heard.

"Just doing my job, ma'am," he said to Katherine. She smiled and nodded to him before vanishing.

Morning broke bright and surly in Ptolemy's eyes, much to his chagrin. He blearily looked down at his feet and found a sleeping Rakka draped there. To the right he saw Sol in a rocking chair with her head back. Kana and Hikari were spread across either side of the table in the center of the room. He heard a slight snicker to the other side and looked over by the doorway to the left to find Nemu and Koi looking in on him.

"It's a mess in here, isn't it?" Nemu noted.

"It looks like a Haibane massacre," Ptolemy said as he plopped his head back down. "I hope I didn't kick someone out of bed here…"

"She insisted," Koi said as he gestured towards the stirring Sol in the rocker.

"How do you feel?" Nemu asked as she came closer.

"Like a drowned rat," he said. He looked up.

Two sharp black eyes looked back.

"CAW!"

"Geeze!" he yelped as he flinched in surprise at Mabel. She was on the headboard over top him flapping her wings.

"WHAT?" Rakka chirped as she was startled. "Oh, you're awake!"

Claudius clutched his chest. "Bird, you're going to give me a heart attack again!"

"Caw!"

A rolled up ball of paper bounced off the wall over the bed. "Crow, I let you stay in here only if you kept QUIET!" Kana growled. She quickly changed her tune when she saw the wad fall on Ptolemy's head. "Oops! Sorry!" she squeaked like a mouse.

"How long has it been since I hatched?" he asked while giving Kana an evil look and tossing the paper back at her.

"It is just after eight now," Nemu noted looking at a small watch on her wrist, "and you were removed from your cocoon just before eleven thirty last night."

He nodded. "Eight and a half hours ago… I wonder how long I'll have then…"

Rakka looked at him confused as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes. "What do you mean? How long it will be until your wings sprout?"

Ptolemy looked at her slightly perplexed himself. "Wings? What do you mean? I'm not a Haibane… At least, I don't think I'm a Haibane…"

"But, the cocoon," Sol said. "You were in a cocoon…"

He looked at his arm and the warm shirt that covered it. "I was also naked if I remember," he grunted.

Koi laughed. "BW loaned it to you since you two seemed to be about the same size."

Rakka shook her head to get them back on the first question. "But what about not being a Haibane? You did come out of the cocoon…"

Ptolemy nodded. "With my memory intact," he added. "When was the last Haibane born like that?"

The others sat quietly at that thought. Rakka looked at him. "Are you sure? Are you sure you don't feel anything at all?"

He rocked his shoulders about. "I don't feel anything in the works there, if that's what you mean. And that might mean I have thirty hours to get back to the Corporation."

"Total?" Hikari asked.

He shrugged. "Possibly – I don't know – we've never had this happen before. How long was I in the cocoon?"

"I found it, or really Mabel found it about three days ago," Koi said rubbing his head.

Ptolemy cocked his head. "Even that's odd," he said. "A normal gestation period is about ten to eleven days…"

Nemu crossed her arms. "Well, if you're insistent on going back to your home, you do know that you might make your wife jealous."

He looked at her puzzled until it struck him what she was referring to. "A mirror, please… quickly!"

Nemu picked up a hand mirror off the small dresser in the guest room and handed it to him. The look on his face made Kana and Hikari almost laugh.

"My god, I've got hair again!" he said as he dragged his fingers through the rusty red locks on his head. "It won't be Janice I'll have to worry about - it's Plato who will be jealous! I must be about twenty again…"

"I'd say a bit younger than that," a woman said from the other end of the room.

Ptolemy looked at her with a shock of surprise. "And you might be?" he asked as she walked over with a large black bag.

"Dr. Abigail McManus," she said. "I'm the new chief surgeon at the Glie Hospital."

He quickly found a thermometer stuck under his tongue and his pulse being taken by this stranger. "I don't remember seeing you being brought up through the ranks here in Glie with the other doctors," he said while holding the glass stick with his teeth.

She smiled and wrote down on a chart her findings. "I was brought in through the eastern gate with the Toga per Hypocrites' orders – the first time ever for Glie. I was trained at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia. I am also sworn to the silence act. I'll be leaving here in about a month when we turn over control to a new local doctor that I'm training in proper human/Haibane etiquette."

"We're just breaking rules left and right these days," Kana snapped. "I thought no one was ever allowed to leave here."

"The Toga leave… the members of the Corporation leave… the BIRDS leave…" Ptolemy noted as the doctor removed the thermometer. "You are from Corporation, correct?" he directed to his doctor.

"Special branch, newly formed," was her response. "We are made up of members that aren't under the sinner's curse."

Rakka looked at the woman in shock. "Sinner's curse? Who has the sinner's curse?" she asked. She looked over at Ptolemy and found him shaking his head and holding his hand up.

"Let's just say that it is the reason why I am not allowed to go through the Eastern Gate," he said. "I'm not allowed to discuss it any further than that." He glowered at his doctor. "And you should know better than to bring it up here."

"Sorry," she said as she wrapped his arm with a blood pressure gauge. She pumped it up and took her readings. "Well, you are showing signs of being a perfectly healthy young adult – I'd say you're about fifteen or sixteen by body shape and size. You were pretty skinny for a kid, weren't you?"

Rakka giggled. Ptolemy blushed then shook his head.

"Hey, just because I have this body doesn't mean an old fart isn't still living inside!" he barked making everyone break into laughter. Mabel lighted on his head causing Rakka to fall back into the bed in a fit.

Ptolemy sighed as the bird looked down at him. Respect? Hardly…

The others slowly left the room to allow Ptolemy to dress. He was surprised to see the remains of the cocoon still on the wall when he stepped out onto the balcony. Normally these large spheres dissolve away soon after they crack, but his still seemed to be hanging about as if telling him it had not completed its mission. He left the room and went down to the courtyard to see it closer.

"Is that him?" he heard when he climbed the ladder to the scaffolding. He looked over the wall and saw that there were still people gathered on the other side of the creek from Old Home. There were still two members of the Community Watch still guarding the bridge as well. He saw Nemu down with the people talking with a lady that he thought he recognized. He rubbed his eyes and tried to see more clearly.

"Damn… I forgot that I wore glasses when I was a boy," he mumbled to himself. "I'll have to have corrective work done again…"

"Look! He's got no wings!" someone with keen observational sight yelled.

"And no halo!" another person added.

"What kind of Haibane is that?"

Claudius planted his fists into his hips and barked back, "And who said I would be a Haibane?" He placed his arm on the cocoon and leaned on it as he looked down and shook his head.

"CAW!"

He looked up and saw Mabel circling over his head.

CRACK!

He looked at the cocoon and saw it shift. He jumped back as it snapped free of the tile and rolled over the edge of the wall. It seemed to Ptolemy to slowly lower itself towards the grassy hill outside the wall, but since it had taken most of the outer scaffold with it, and it splintered into a myriad of pieces as it struck the ground, it must have been only his perception playing tricks on him.

He grabbed the railing behind him. The scaffolding had only been slung over the wall, and with the one side missing, it was now sliding backwards into the courtyard. He quickly shuffled towards the ladder and jumped on just as it tilted back and in, smashing across the area and crushing the Adirondack chair.

"You couldn't wait until the crews took that down?" he heard the doctor call up to him as he opened his eyes.

"Thought I'd help out," he replied back as he slowly lowered himself. He looked down and saw Nemu and Sumika looking up at him from the opening of the gate.

"Are you alright?" they chorused.

"Nothing's broken," he replied. When he looked back, he saw a sour face looking up at him. "What?"

"That was very reckless," Nemu scolded him. "You could have very well injured yourself!"

Ptolemy shot the sour face right back at her. "It's not like I expected it to do that!" he said with a bit of disgust in himself thrown in for good measure. "I might not look like it right now, but I'm still a scientist my dear. And I'm still quite older than you!"

"That's Ptolemy all right," Sumika said with a snicker.

He shook his head. "Nemu, do you have any old cardboard boxes around here?" he asked.

"Huh?" she asked.

The people outside the wall were surprised to see the boy who had made the cocoon fall there with a large box tossing chunks into it.

"Well, at least he cleans up after himself," Ptolemy heard. He snorted and continued to gather pieces.

Lunchtime arrived. Some of the workers from the rehab work had come down to clear the larger chunks of wood from the two sides of the wall. Most of the Haibane had left for their respective jobs in town, and those people outside Old Home had returned to their homes or jobs. Nemu and Sumika had stayed, since they both had the day off from the library, and were making the meal. Rakka was getting ready for her afternoon walk to the Temple for her day's work while Sol tended to Sumika's baby girl.

Rakka entered the guest room to find Ptolemy on the cell phone that had been left by Hipp the night before.

"Yes, yes, it does seem strange," he told the person on the other end. "We've seen what happens to normal cocoons… exactly… right… so why is mine still intact – well mostly… right… I've packed a good chunk of it for retrieval. Yes… I don't know. There's only one way to find out I think. Yes, I'll be there. We already know that I'd feel the effects about an hour before… yes… yes an hour… maybe two… Right. Look, I've got to conserve the power on this thing – Hipp didn't leave the recharger for it. Yea… love you too."

"Say hi to Janice for me," Rakka said as she walked behind him towards the kitchen.

"Rakka says hi," he said with a smile and a wink. He closed the phone and put it on the table next to a chunk of cocoon which he picked up and examined with a magnifying glass.

"Here, try this."

He looked up and found Doctor McManus handing him a smaller magnifier.

"A linen tester," he said as he opened it up. "What are you doing with this?"

The doctor closed her kit. "I find it more useful at times than one of these." She pulled out a rod-like device from her pocket.

"Ah, a scanning rod," he said. "You do know that would be considered a banned device here in Glie."

She laughed. "True, but where would we be without such devices? Besides, we aren't locked into the same rules as you are." She waved it over the chunk of cocoon and looked at the ball end that made up its handle. "Cellular degeneration is negligible. You do make them to last, don't you?"

He huffed as he opened the smaller but more powerful magnifier and looked closely at the cocoon section. "Not intentionally. Cocoons normally dissolve within hours of their breakage, yet mine almost looks like concrete." He glanced up at the doctor and grunted.

"So, what honor do we have to be graced by an Observer?" he asked as he returned to looking closely at the shell chunk.

"You can't tell?" she asked as a reply to his question.

He looked up at her. "Well, you are a doctor, and only the Observers could have planted you into our Corporation without raising alarm bells all over the place…"

She shrugged. "Guilty," she said with a smirk. "I take it my cover story wasn't convincing enough?"

He shook his head as he returned to the chunk. "Oh, I believe you that you trained at Thomas Jefferson… but WHICH Jeff? You see, I've had dealings with your group before. I know enough to know that you observe, but not just this world, but many others, and in many dimensions. How is your Captain anyway?"

She smiled and looked at the section of cocoon as well. "Captain Strom is quite worried about you. Otherwise, he is well."

Ptolemy nodded. "Send him my regards then." He sighed and leaned back in his chair. He turned it towards her. "So tell me, just why are you here?"

She sat on the edge of the table and looked under her coat at something that beeped back at her. "Mediation," she said.

Ptolemy groaned and planted his hand on his forehead. "Oh damn it. Are they squabbling again?"

The doctor nodded. "Dante is having all he can handle to keep the two of them from sending out the Apocalypse. The basement and the attic, as you call them, are becoming quite argumentative lately."

"Let me guess," Ptolemy said, "the Seven Jewels?"

"Bingo," she replied. "The basement wants more representation, while the attic isn't willing to bend. Plus the release of the Saint recently only made things worse."

Ptolemy looked up at the ceiling. "Both sides are stubborn. How bad is it really?"

McManus sighed as she took a chair. "Both sides are building forces. And you remember the last time they did that."

He nodded. "Yes, they do tend to drag everyone in when they do, don't they? Hiroshima and Nagasaki were proofs of that."

He looked over at the curtains to the kitchen. "It's awful quiet in there," he commented.

Rakka, Nemu and Sumika, all of whom were holding a glass as if to silence their screaming, all gasped for air realizing they had just been caught eavesdropping.

"What… what does this all mean?" Rakka asked as she slowly stepped through the flaps of the curtains.

Ptolemy grunted again and dropped the magnifier of the table with a thunk.

"War," he said. "A dirty ugly war that most likely will drag everyone in with it, much like the last skirmish did."

"Does that mean it would come here?" Nemu asked as she hurried to be beside Rakka.

Ptolemy shook his head. "I have no idea. The last time the basement and attic went at it in a serious manner, it wasn't over anything in particular. But if they're fighting over these Holy Sites, then I would say most definitely yes. And it would drag all the other worlds into the fray, first overloading the Sites with new arrivals, and then possibly bringing the fighting here."

"That would be the Armageddon Syndrome we predicted after we moderated the last skirmish," the doctor noted. "There would be no recovery from this. It would bring on the end."

Rakka swallowed. The thought was incredible. Heaven fighting Hell? That was the eternal battle, wasn't it? Good verses evil? The thought pounded through her mind all the way to her job in the catacombs of the town walls. Her crew was waiting for her as she slowly opened the hatchway.

"Are you okay?" Toki asked her seeing the near blank stare she had on her face.

Rakka remembered the last thing Ptolemy and McManus told her – keep this to herself. Keep this to herself, but also…

_"…Keep an eye out,"_ the young old man had told her. _"Keep an eye out for the trigger."_

_"The trigger?"_ she had asked.

He nodded. _"Yes… the trigger that may launch all of this. This sounds like a powder keg waiting to be lit. We do not need it blowing up in our faces."_

The door clanked open as the group entered the passage.

"Oh, look!" Cinder called out making Rakka spin about.

The tunnel was lit up like someone was using an arc welder in the area up by the falls where they had been cleaning just the other day. Rakka saw it and gasped. Before any in the party could ask, she was running along the canal's edge towards the light.

A tag… it was a tag shining bright. It was the one she had been working on yesterday!

"A Saint!" Rakka yelped. "A Saint is rising!"

_"Anything could set the trigger,"_ Ptolemy warned her. _"And anything could set it off."_

oOo

_**Play the RPG Sadako's Well on AnimeMangaWorld! - Email for the address**_

_**Join the Renmei - Visit the C2 Community and Discussion Forums of Charcoal Feathers of Glie & Surrounding Territories here on FFN!**_

Characters from Sadako's Well - Toki by R.A. Stott ©2004-2011 S.E. Nordwall & R.A. Stott

Character Setsu from the FFN FanFic "Darkness" ©2004-2011 TeaRoses – Used with Permission

Character name Bloodeagle ©2004-2011 S.E. Nordwall – Used with Permission

Gabrella ©2004-2011 The Lugia Project/Denivan Media Services – Used with Permission

L–C-L reference – Neon Genesis Evangeleon ©2004-2011 Gainax/Project Eva

Tolefson, Doctor Abigail McManus, Captain Roy Strom, Scanning Rods, The Observers ©2004-2011 Denivan Media Services – Used with permission

Characters from Haibane Renmei ©2004-2011 Yoshitoshi ABe

©2004-2011 The Golden Halo Project/DMS

Edit and Remastered 1106.13


	7. Feathers of Red ¤ Wings of Leather

**.**

**2 0 1 1 - R E V I S I O N**

**-O-**

**H A I B A N E - R E N M E I :**

**C O R P O R A T I O N**

Chapter Seven

**Feathers of Red – Wings of Leather**

By R. A. Stott

"Why are we running from the Saint?" Toki asked as she stumbled along.

Rakka dragged her crew back to the doorway up from the catacombs. She stopped and pointed up the stairs as she ushered them out.

"I want you all to get out of here, NOW!" she ordered. "Toki, find the old Communicator and tell him what's going on. Cinder, you're the quickest… run to Old Home… I want you to tell Mr. Ptolemy. The rest of you stay near the Temple. GO!"

"But Rakka…" they complained, "what _IS_ going on?"

She shoved them through the door. "I can't tell you now! Get GOING!" With the last one through, she slid the door shut.

"I've got to talk to it… settle it down," Rakka said to herself. She started to run back up the edge path to the glowing tag. "It may trigger a war!"

* * *

Ptolemy looked up at the clock on the mantle next to him. Roughly fourteen hours had passed since his release from the cocoon… almost half way through what may be his thirty hours. He had to squint to see the dial clearly… blasted nearsighted vision.

He studied the fragment of his cocoon. It was still quite rigid. It bothered him that the material was so thick and hard. Why was his so different from those he had seen before? He dropped the piece on the table.

It chimed. It gave off an almost metallic ring. He had not heard anything like that from it before, especially when it shattered falling from the wall. Maybe it had been the soft ground that it had landed on, he wasn't sure. He picked up the section again and dropped it to the hard floor.

Now it gonged. It bounced and spun a few times making a new, sometimes unpleasant sound each time it struck the ground before it settled.

"I'll be damned," he said in his now younger voice. "What is this stuff made of?" He picked it up and plopped it back into the box he had pulled it from.

Something caught his attention. He couldn't quite fathom what it was, but something was wrong. Something… up by the Temple?

* * *

"Scanners are off the board again," Janice reported to Plato as he stood behind her at the controls. "I've got Apogee Reports on phantom inbounds, flight data for everyone in Tripoli and a massive buildup of energy in the northwestern section of Glie… What is going on here?"

Plato grumbled. "You and Claudius were at your apartment the last time I saw this…" he said to her. "This is what we saw just before Bakuu was set free."

She shook her head. "It's not very far from where she launched from. As a matter of fact, it's only a few degrees off."

"Oh, this is not good," Dante said as he slid into a chair and covered his head. "This is not good at all…"

"More trouble?" the director asked the liaison chief.

He seemed to shiver. "Think about it," he told them as he raised his head. "Bakuu… I mean Katherine, is Seventh Realm, and she was released from the same area. That means that there's a good chance that those in the wall in that zone were Seventh as well."

Plato examined the map. "Wasn't their commandant taken down then as well?" he asked.

Dante only nodded and re-covered his head.

* * *

Rakka had to squint so she could even look at the tag. She tried to read the hieroglyphic letters by shielding her face with her hand while forming them with her fingers using her knowledge of the Toga alphabet.

"S-T-R-Y-K-E-R… Stryker?" she puzzled as the glow intensified and was now joined by a rushing wind sound. She stood back and looked up at the top of the wall. It was glowing as well, and in some places cracks were forming.

"Stryker! Stryker, can you hear me?" she called out. "My name is Rakka! Stryker! Please Stryker, if you can hear me, you've got to settle! Please Stryker! Now is not a good time to come out! You could start a war! You could make my home a battlefield! Please Stryker, you have to listen to me! PLEASE!"

A pulse of energy shot up from the base of the plaque and through the roof. After that, it settled down to a gentle glow and Rakka could once again look upon the tag and see the text without blinding herself.

"What is this?" she wondered as she examined the tag closer. There she found new text alongside the larger name of the tag's bearer. She started to gesture with her fingers the forms she found, mumbling to herself the sounds associated with the letters.

"To protect and defend," she read to herself. "I am the ram, the sword and shield of my mountain – protector to my lord… beware my wrath – covet my friendship. I seek the truth for honor and loyalty." She held her breath and stepped back as the words fell through her. Unlike Bakuu's tag, the words on this one seemed more ominous.

"What do you seek, child?"

Rakka spun about. The question had been asked by a deep toned male voice, but seemed to have come from everywhere.

"Who are you!" she yelled. "Where are you!"

"There is no need to shout, child," it replied. "I am here, before you."

She felt her foot slip as she nearly fell into the canal. She stumbled back towards the plaque. "Who are you?" she asked again as she tried to regain her composure.

A deep rumble filled the catacombs as if the voice suddenly was coming from deep below her. "Aries," it said with a thunderous clap that caused the water to ripple behind her and drowned out the sounds of the falls nearby to her. "But my legion calls me Stryker."

Rakka shivered. "Legion?"

The voice shook the ground with laughter. "The Seventh Realm, I am their commandant," it bellowed. It had told Rakka to not shout… now if she could just get IT to not do the same! "Tell me child, where am I? I sense you, but I can not see you… I can not see myself, save for this void before me."

Rakka staggered a bit as the booming tone had softened slightly. "You're… you're entrapped. You're within a plaque in this wall," she told him. "You have been here for a very long time, along with many of your fellow saints."

"Saints?" the marker bellowed. "Who are you referring to? Are you calling me a saint?"

"It is what we refer to you as, yes," Rakka explained. She was then forced back by a burst of howling wind.

"A SAINT!" Stryker blasted. "I was HARDLY a SAINT! I remember… I remember now… the mission! The mission to quash man's pretence that he could attempt to harness that which was not his to tap! The blasphemy of his science! But in the uncontrolled cataclysm he unleashed, just as I was about to smite him, a ribbon of negative energy struck me down! It planted me, soul and sod into this crevasse! But now I am releasing my bonds – I can feel it! I CAN FEEL IT!"

"Stryker Aries, please! You have to listen to me!" she cried as she held her hands to her ears to keep them from popping. "You mustn't come out right now! You must stay there!"

The plaque laughed again. "Why would I want to do that?" it chortled. "I have been encased within this stone far too long! I will ascend!"

"But coming out now is bad!" Rakka shouted back. "You could start a war!"

The glow of the plaque suddenly vanished, leaving the catacombs dark. It then slowly returned, but now its golden hue was more deeply red. "Why would I care?" it asked. "War is my purpose."

Rakka felt her blood drop to her feet. "You're a Saint!" she screamed. "Saints do not seek war! Saints want to prevent war! It is NOT your PURPOSE!"

The plaque darkened again as it lost some of its red. "Not my purpose? It is not my purpose?" it asked.

Rakka looked at the dull light. "No, why would you want to go to war? God doesn't want war…"

The tag nearly went black for a moment then burst forth with a shower of crimson light and wind. "I HAVE BEEN IMPRISONED IN THIS WALL FOR LONG ENOUGH!" the voice of the Saint exploded. "IF A WAR IS BROUGHT UPON US BY MY RELEASE, THEN LET IT BE SO! I WILL BE THE FIRST HAMMER TO STRIKE! I WILL BE THE FIRST BLADE TO SLICE! I WILL PROTECT MY MOUNTAIN!"

Tears were being blown back across her cheeks as the wind tossed back the cowl to her robes. She lunged for the tag and slammed her gauntleted hands against it as she screamed "NO! YOU MUSTN'T! I WON'T LET YOU!" With each strike, the red light would shift to a light blue and then would dim down slightly.

"AHH!" the deep voiced entity yelled as she hammered the tag with the flat of her hands. "Child, what are you doing? How can a mere human have such strength against me?"

"I - AM - A - HAIBANE!" Rakka shouted with each strike of her hands. The vision of Bakuu's sword clanging off her halo suddenly flashed across her mind as she remembered how she had held that Saint back from killing Mr. Ptolemy. She gritted her teeth and pressed hard on the tag as the glow was now a deep blue and fading quickly.

"You WILL remain in there until I give you the all clear! Understand!" she told the Saint. The light dimmed down to what normally would come from its light leaves. She finally let go and exhaled, dropping to her knees and panting hard.

"Rakka, just what are you doing?" she heard. She looked to her left and saw the old Communicator, Toki and Chip all looking at her.

She was breathing hard as she tried to catch her breath. "I… the Saint… can't say… Mr. Ptolemy…"

"Claudius?" the Communicator asked. "Has Claudius made you keep a secret?"

Rakka nodded as she continued to gasp for air. "How… how did I do that?" she asked as she heaved. "Why was I able to stop the Saint?"

The Communicator reached down and placed her hood back over her head and lifted her to her feet. "It is unclear why you have such strength over the Saint's powers, small one. You showed it to us on the day Bakuu rose as well, and I'm told that you were found floating over your bed the same morning… Interesting…"

Rakka blushed and looked away, remembering how the others had found her over her mattress that morning and her waking up wondering why she was standing in bed.

"Maybe she has ties with the Saints?" Toki suggested as she tapped her cheek and pondered the idea. "I mean, look at what she did to that sword of Bakuu's… her halo knocked it clear over the wall!"

Chip leaned down and examined the tag. "Well, it certainly looks like it's settled down." He placed his gloved hand against it and felt for any vibrations. "It seems peaceful again…"

He was then flung across the canal by a bolt of lightning. He landed on the far walkway in a crumpled heap.

The tag was again brilliantly lighting up the catacombs, and Rakka was torn between stopping its restlessness and seeing if Toki's partner was okay. She felt a little relief as she saw him get up and shake his head.

"What the hell was all THAT about?" he yelled as the sound the tag was making was now growing louder.

Rakka stepped up to the plaque and slapped her gloves hard onto its surface. This time though, it showed little change as it had before. She could even feel the tingle of the electricity starting to ebb through the leather of her gauntlets. She backed up and watched as the next burst shot through the column that the tag was mounted on and through the roof.

"Something's wrong!" she shouted. "It's like something is shoving the Saint out!"

"We must get up to the surface!" the old Communicator shouted as he dragged the skiff up from its dock to get the stunned Chip off the far walkway.

* * *

Cinder was amazed at how fast she had managed to run the distance from way up north to the old buildings in the south. She had taken a back path that took her into the southern end of the town, which made her snicker to herself a little at the ruckus she had caused by giving some the locals the sight of a Scar running through the heart of Glie. Still, she had managed to avoid any of the Town Watch as she ran the final length of the main road down towards Old Home. She rounded the turn up the path to the main gate and found her young-looking target examining the scooter parked just inside it.

"Ptolemy?" she asked out of breath. "Is that you Ptolemy?"

He squinted at the slightly fuzzy girl who had just asked his name. "Cinder?" he pondered. "That's your name, isn't it child?" He caught himself for a moment. Calling someone who looked his age 'child' suddenly became odd feeling to him. "What seems to be the problem? Aren't you part of Rakka's cleaning squad?"

She gasped for air as she leaned into him for support. "Yes, yes… we were just entering the canal… there was this light… the ground was shaking, and it looked like a Saint was rising!"

Ptolemy straightened her up as she continued to gather air back into her lungs. "What was that? A Saint?" he asked leaning down to get her to look at him. "Cinder, did you say a Saint was rising?"

She nodded as she clung to him. "Rakka told me… tell you what's going on… She sounded like this was a bad thing… is it a bad thing Mr. Ptolemy?"

He jogged to the back of the archway and looked over the buildings towards the northwest. There, even in the daylight, he saw the same flash of light he had seen when Bakuu had come free of her interment. He grumbled to himself.

"Wait here," he told her as he dashed back to the kitchen area of the old school. He shortly came out with the cell phone and a set of keys.

"That's right," he said to the phone. "Get two teams here now while I go and check things out up at the Temple. No, I don't know which Saint it is yet, but from the light I just saw, I don't think this one's going to be as held back like Bakuu had been. Yea… yea, I think we have a hot one here… Get Dante to get the reps for both the Attic and Basement together so that this doesn't start any incidents. Good. Good… I'm heading up there now. Yes… yes honey… yes I will. No, I don't intend on letting this one try to slice me in two… no, not this time… that's right, just mangled and splattered this time… hah hah… Gotta go… Love ya…"

He stepped aboard the scooter and gestured for the girl to climb on behind him on the jump seat. She watched as he jumped on the starter peddle and wondered if this was such a good idea as he revved the small engine.

"Let's go! Let's go!" he gestured as she tentatively sat behind him. She just managed to grab onto his shirt as he spun the tire under her and shot them down the drive and over the small foot bridge.

"They're getting too much oil into the gas on this thing," she heard him complain as they made the snap turn to the north at the end of the path. "Two-cycle engines are such a pain!"

* * *

The group exited the tunnel out of the catacombs and found a second cacophony of sounds and lights within the Temple itself. They found Watch members running about as they heard the noise of something crumbling nearby.

"Oh, I was worried about that," Rakka said as they saw a flash of light and a stone come from around a nearby corner. She ran up to see and found the top of a pillar along the northeast wall falling to the ground. "Where we were down there and where the falls are… the Saint is coming up through the Temple!"

She felt a hand rest on her shoulder. "Not quite," the old Communicator said as he pointed with his staff. "I would say just outside that wall though. This is only a residual feedback."

"Rakka! Toki! Chip!" they then heard and found Tom and Joshua huddling by the main entrance to the gardens. "Over here!"

Another flare ran up the wall opposite them, causing another section of the crumbling pillar to fall and bounce aside. "Sorry," Rakka apologized as they scurried to their side. "I guess this wasn't the safest place to be!"

"At least it's never boring with you," Tom kidded her. "What happened to you?" he asked Chip as he was still smoldering slightly.

"Never stand between a Saint and its release," he grunted as he brushed the singed robe. "The lightning they use will drill you out of the way."

Tom nearly laughed. "You pissed off the Saint?"

Chip shrugged a yes. "What now?"

Rakka had a determined look on her face as she looked at the damage the Saint was doing to the old building. "This is wrong… this is just like when Bakuu came up, only worse. I can feel it! Something is forcing him out! I've got to stop him, before he ruins the Temple!" She stood up and ran out the doorway towards the outer wall.

"You're going to do what!" Tom asked as they realized what she had just said. But it was too late – she had already vanished through a cloud of dust.

* * *

"Yo! What's going on in there?" Hyohko yelled at a ruckus that was coming from a storage hut by the wind mill generators at The Hill of Winds. He was down there with a few others from the Factory assisting some of the electric company workers who were upgrading the generation farm for the modification to the power grid needed for the hospital and the work going on down at Old Home. He had seen some Little Feathers playing hooky from their day care lessons lately, and he half expected to find them clanging on the pipes of the chain-link fence that surrounded it again.

"Whoa!"

He stood back at the size of the man who was now standing outside that doorway to the hut. He also now knew what had been making the awful noise. It was some sort of contraption on the man's back. It had been snagged by someone within the strange green light that the door covered. He looked up at the boy on the other side of the fence from the opening and snorted like a horse that was displeased by its feed.

"Look away, son. I'm not really here," he told him in a deep voice that almost sounded like a whinny.

"Not another one," Hyohko said as he stepped back a bit further. "What are you doing down there? Are you from The Corporation as well?"

The man stood nearly two to three feet over his head, and had long black hair that ran down his back. He had dark black eyes, a black leather jacket that nearly matched his dark complexion, and huge round hands. But what caught Hyohko's attention most was the white spot on his forehead – out of all this darkness was this diamond shaped white spot that stuck out like a beacon.

"No," the man said as he adjusted the package on his back, "but I would expect them soon. Which way is it to town?"

Hyohko almost fell backwards as the man walked out from the portal area and climbed the short stairs into the daylight. "T-town?" he stuttered as the size of the man now became evident.

"I'll show you," Hyohko heard a coy woman's voice say as he backed into something soft. He looked over his shoulder and found a rather sizable bosom in his face.

"Ah," the man grunted. "Gabrella… and what brings you here?" he asked.

Hyohko fell over as she vanished. He looked around and found her now taking the arm of the stranger on the other side of the fence to escort him towards the main gate.

"What… what is that… woman!" Hyohko finally gasped at the sight of the demon. And why was his nose bleeding?

"So Nightwatch… your human form, ea?" she asked as they strolled along. "And new toys I see… what is the Observer's most eligible bachelor doing lugging such a thing?" She twirled some of his long hair in her fingers as they stepped up to the padlocked doorway.

"Equipment for Dr. McManus," he said with little excitement. He looked at the high fence and then glanced back at his package. He snorted again and leapt over it as some of the other Haibane watched slack jawed. "Are you coming?" he asked the Demon-Goddess.

She sneered and walked through the fence as if it weren't there. Where she had passed through it, the links were hissing and popping.

Nightwatch shook his head. "You do know you just passed through an ionized field," he commented.

"Yes, it did tingle a bit," she replied as she tossed her curly black hair back and acted as if she were brushing soot off herself. "It might deter smaller and lesser demons, but you _know_ I'm different." She then looked to the northwest towards the falls and smirked. "I believe I need to go that way. You'll find the Doctor at the hospital… it's in the middle of the town that way… you can't miss it."

She launched herself skywards. When last seen, she was only a wisp of smoke drifting towards the Temple of the Haibane-Renmei.

"Idiot," Nightwatch grunted as he adjusted the load and started to trudge towards the town center.

A sound caught his ear – the noisy epithets of a small motor being driven hard along with the tooting of a tinny horn. He stepped off the road as the scooter with Ptolemy and Cinder flew by, barely making the turn up the Renmei Road and headed towards the same direction as the smoke had gone.

"This whole world's gone mad," he mused as he returned to the road and his journey.

"Did you see the size of that man?" Cinder asked her driver.

"Too busy!" was all Ptolemy told her as they raised a cloud of dust and gravel behind themselves.

* * *

Kana looked at the grease brush she was holding and gagged. The gears of the clock tower main drives were sometimes really gross to keep in working order. And since she was the only one small and thin enough to climb in there and do the work without removing some major service plates, she would get lube-duty once a month. It was the one piece of the clock system she hated. Last month she nearly caught her halo in the main screw-drive, and she always had to keep her wings under a jacket to keep them from catching something. It was disgusting. But since her job this month had been interrupted by the events of Ptolemy's death and rebirth, she was completing what she had not the other day. She plopped the offending lubing tool into the bucket it had come from with a splat.

She climbed out onto the outside walkway and stretched herself. That was a crummy job, but at least it wouldn't need to be done for another month.

The breeze was blowing up from the south. It brought along with itself the sound of beeping coming up from behind her that she recognized. She quickly moved to the southern face of the clock and looked down the main boulevard. Briefly, she saw the bright yellow body of the Vespa as it made the turn up the Renmei Road just south of town. She saw a scattering of Young Feathers that it had shooed aside with its noisy little horn.

"What is that crazy kid doing with my scooter!" she yelled. "HEY! CLAUDIUS! WHAT'S GOING ON! I LEFT THAT WITH YOU FOR EMERGENCIES ONLY!" she then barked as loud as she could. Other than getting the attention of a few people below her at the foot of the clock tower, the effort had been obviously futile, and she knew it.

"Crap…" she said as she held back her hair from a gust of wind. "Well, I hope he gets gas for that thing!" she added with a grumble.

There was a flash of light then that caught her attention. It was up near the area of the Temple. It seemed to be coming from the wall!

"A flash of light… from the WALL!" Kana held her breath for a moment. "Again! DAMN!" she shouted as she tore off the jacket and headed for the stairwell down.

Ptolemy neared his favorite bridge. The Gideon swung slightly in the afternoon heat – it was empty so he readied his turn into it.

"Where are you going? Where are YOU GOING? WHERE ARE YOU GOING!" Cinder yelped as they started onto the span. "The Saint is up at the Temple, not my town!"

Ptolemy brought the scooter to a bumpy stop a few yards into the wood and rope bridge. He squinted hard up river to see if he could see anything. "Blasted eyesight… I really should have made the optometrist my first stop of the day… do you see anything that way? It's all a blur to me…"

"What! You can't SEE!" Cinder was about ready to leap off the scooter now, but that would have sent her over the edge of the swaying span. She gingerly stepped off as Ptolemy stood up so that they could back the vehicle up. It was when he wanted to continue on that she had second thoughts about it.

"We must get going!" he complained.

"But you didn't even see that huge man back there!" she shot back. "I think I'd rather walk!"

"I can see fine! We won't hit anything!" He sat back down on the scooter and kicked the starter again. "Young lady, come ON!"

Having a boy call her 'young lady' seemed weird to say the least, but he did say it with authority. She reluctantly climbed aboard and he floored it.

"How are we going to get this up to the Temple along that narrow ledge up ahead?" Cinder yelled over the whine of the motor. They were rapidly approaching the section where most people needed to hug the side of a hill as they moved along the south side of the river.

"We'll take the Town Watch's route," Ptolemy said as he slowed down. "You must swear that you've never seen this, young lady."

She had no idea what he was meaning. But just prior to the hillside and the path to the right, they swung to the left and headed behind some trees and scrub-brush bushes. There they approached a small tunnel opening.

"What is this?" the girl asked as they stopped. Ptolemy dropped the kickstand and stood up.

"Old military service tunnels used by the Renmei… you think those old fools would risk themselves sliding along the face of that hill?" Ptolemy chuckled to himself as he entered the path.

Cinder slid her fingers across the sides of the tunnel and felt the slight crumbling of built-up soot there. "This feels older than even the tunnel under the town walls…"

"It is," Ptolemy said as he led the way. "They're older than Glie… the tunnel under the wall is relatively new compared to this one." They continued on in silence until they popped out into the daylight again. They were behind another bush, but from the roar she now heard deafening her ears, she knew just where they were – the falls near the Temple and the rope bridge before it.

"You mean to tell me that all those times I nearly fell into the river, there was a safer way to this bridge!" Cinder shouted.

"Oh, like this thing makes it any safer?" Ptolemy yelled back as he started to make his way across the span. Cinder had to agree with him about the old rope bridge. She tepidly started to follow him when he was about half way over. She stared at her feet the entire way, making sure she found solid wood under them with each step. She didn't know how long she had left until she found the old boy's hand taking hers at the far end.

"Of course, I remember when we strung this bridge," he said as he assisted her off. "Certainly was an event… It took us ten times with a rocket powered sea-rescue gun to get these ropes across. We kept hitting the falls with the vacuum the water makes…" He continued on, leaving Cinder to ponder this boy who had been a man a short while ago.

* * *

Koi stood outside the newspaper office as he flipped through his notepad. The editor had asked him to interview Ptolemy for the next edition of the weekly rag. He wondered just how he'd pull that one off without sounding like he was being a too nosey 'Homer'.

A thunderclap struck his mind. It made him stagger against the wall of the building he was in front of as his brain felt as if someone had just stuck a hot poker with it. He managed to open his eyes in a slit and peered towards where the spike had struck him – in the hills southwest of town.

A flash of light caught his eye, illuminating the corner of the hospital. Something was happening up towards the Temple… but what?

"It's evil… demonic… what the hell?"

"Koi!" he heard. He turned and saw Kana running across the square towards him. He looked back to where he had seen the flash and saw a huge dark man standing beside the hospital… he seemed to be looking at him. He shook his head in an attempt to clear his mind.

Suddenly he found his right hand being yanked. He looked down it and found Kana dragging him along.

"Come on! It looks like another Saint is rising!" she yelped as they headed towards the south road.

"What?" Koi asked as he stumbled along. "Is that what I'm feeling? Why? Why is it so… evil?"

Kana stopped and looked up at him. "What? You mean you can feel it?" It was then she noticed that the boy was holding his head. He looked like he had the all-time headache. "Hey, are you all right?"

"You have little time," he then heard. "Climb aboard me."

Koi looked up. "What? Who said that?"

Kana looked about. "Said what? What are you talking… on my…"

Koi looked at Kana and saw she was looking ahead of them. He followed her gaze to find a startling sight.

There was a horse. A huge black stallion with a white diamond mark on its forehead was looking back at them and pawing the cobblestones with its hoof.

"Get on me if you wish to get there in time, son," he heard.

"I don't believe it," he whispered.

"Whether you believe it or not is irrelevant," a flat reply came to him. "Just do it! Time is wasting!"

He grabbed Kana's hand and dragged her to the horse. "Come on… get on!" he told her as she suddenly found herself being lifted up by Koi.

"HEY! WAIT! Whose horse is this?" she yelped as he planted her over the shoulders of the beast.

"Trust me, he's here for us," Koi said as he dragged a box over and got up behind her. "Okay, go! Get us up there!"

"The name is Nightwatch," he heard in his mind. "I will guide you there. Hold her safe."

The horse nodded and spun about with a snort. Kana gasped at how fast it accelerated through the town. People stared as the trio raced southwards.

"THIS IS NUTS!" she shouted as they blew into the top of the southern farms. But it didn't take long for her to switch from sheer fear to utter enjoyment of the speed.

"WHOO HOO!" she shouted. "I DON'T CARE WHOSE HORSE THIS IS! WHAHOO!"

She then realized that they were riding bareback – no saddle. A slight amount of fear crept back through her and she leaned back slightly. It was then she noticed how Koi was surrounding her with his body. There was no way she was going to fall off – he had a look of determination on his face. He sat behind her as if he had done this before.

She felt her face blush… what? What the hell was she doing that for?

* * *

"I don't know… he was just huge!" Hyohko was telling Midori as they stood before the gate at the hut. "And that woman that was with him… damn, I don't know what the hell she was…"

Midori held her hand up. "Shhh!" she hissed. "What's that?"

The rapid scraping of gravel and dirt ran up the hill towards them. They stepped back as a cloud of dust and wind approached them.

"GEEZE!" Hyohko shouted as the horse thundered by and left them covered in soot.

"What the hell was that?" they then heard. They looked back at the gate and saw the padlock in the hands of Director Plato. He was followed by Janice and some other people who were carrying equipment. A few of those in the rear were swatting smoldering spots on their jackets courtesy of Jester and his fireballs.

"I swear, it was like he knew we were coming," Dante said as he brought up the rear. "The attic is yelling now, boss," he then directed towards Plato. "The basement denies all, but I seriously doubt it. The energy readings are acting as if this one was spiked out by a jolt from down there."

Plato looked at the flash of light from the northwest. Broad daylight, a bright sun, and yet the glow of the rising Saint was easily seen. He then looked at his watch.

"This could not have happened at a worst time," he grumbled. "Okay, most of us only have about ten hours available to us. Let's set up, get things ready and bring the second team in. Got it?"

Janice was on her cell phone delicately trying to keep it in contact with base over the static. "Rhea confirms that we have a go, and the second team will be ready with the heavy equipment if needed."

"Very well," Plato said as they started to hike up the Renmei Road.

"Umm…" she added. "Director, she also confirms… we have Observers, sir."

Plato stopped and looked at her then at Dante. "Observers, ea?"

"Thank god," Dante said with relief flowing off his face. "It certainly took them long enough."

Plato scowled. "More likely they've been here all along… or at least since Ptolemy's hatching. How else would that man on watch the other night know about Haibane drowning in their own cocoons?" He looked at Janice and sighed. "If they are here, then they must expect something nasty."

Dante swallowed. "Err… true… but they are quite capable of mediation… better than I am…"

He found the huge hand of his superior on his shoulder. "Don't put yourself down, Dante," he said. "You've defused many conflicts before."

He sighed as they started north again. "Nothing like this… it's been building exponentially ever since the last war."

Plato laughed. "That's because it never ends, Dante my boy. If there were ever true peace, I believe the universe would cease to exist."

"That's a rather grim view of things," Hyohko said. Plato and the others then noticed that they were being followed by the two Haibane.

"Well, think about it son," the director said as they continued on. "There is always conflict, even in the most subtle of things." He held up the lock that he found he had forgotten to leave at the gate. "For example… this…"

Hyohko and Midori blinked at the object. "A lock?" they asked.

"A lock…" Plato pushed the bolt in. "Now it's closed. My conflict… I want it open. The lock wants to open, but its conflict is that there is a pin inside it that keeps it closed. My solution is this… the key. The key's conflict… it must match up with the tumblers inside the lock, or it won't work. So when I insert my solution, all my conflicts are released, and the lock opens."

"But what if you didn't have the key?" Midori asked.

Plato nodded. "That is the correct question my dear," he laughed. "My conflicts have then escalated. I have the wrong key… or no key at all… and I must release the lock. My solution would then be to take a drastic action and get a set of bolt cutters… hardly a peaceful resolution, correct?"

Midori shook her head. "Yes, but you've removed the lock."

Plato grunted. "Yes, but at what cost? Now I have to get a new lock, keys… all because I couldn't wait for the correct key to arrive. Was it worth it then?"

"Depends," Hyohko, said as he knocked some of the dust off himself.

"Depends?" Midori asked.

"Sure," he said. "It depends on just why you needed the lock off for in the first place."

Plato shook with laughter. "My, we do still have smart children about, don't we? That is exactly the right answer. The conflict is only judged by why it was necessary in the first place."

Midori shuddered. "Is there a conflict coming then?" she asked as she leaned into Hyohko.

Plato suddenly became less jovial. "Darker than you'd know… I hope not, but at this time, I can only say… yes…"

Midori and Hyohko stopped and watched the group proceed on.

"The man… the man we saw earlier… before you arrived, director…"

Plato stopped and looked back at them. "A man?" he asked.

Hyohko nodded. "He was tall and dark… he had an incredible black jacket on and had long black hair…"

Plato smiled. "Tell me, did he have a white spot on his forehead?"

Hyohko stepped forwards. "Yes… yes, like a diamond."

Plato's smile turned to a grin. "Oh, very good."

Dante shook his head. "Damn, no wonder the blasted demons were waiting for us!"

"Just as well he's here," Plato chuckled. "That was Nightwatch, an Observer, and a very good friend."

"Nightwatch?" the two Haibane asked as they returned to following The Corporation members. "Is he here to mediate whatever this conflict is supposed to be?"

"Not that I would think," Janice said with a laugh. "He's an Observer, but he's really a teacher."

"Observers… what are Observers?" Midori asked.

Plato looked towards the sky. "Truthfully, we aren't supposed to say… though there is no rule saying we aren't supposed to either… The Observers are a group that record and witness history on multiple universes – dimensional levels they call it… They work independently of both the attic and the basement, and are sometimes called in to mediate conflicts between the two."

"They would only intercede though if the conflict would spill over into multiple levels," Dante added. "This could be one of those times."

"And this Nightwatch… he's only a teacher? A teacher of what?"

Plato laughed again. "Life is his curriculum, and how to live it!"

* * *

The horse rounded the bend in the path just past the Gideon Bridge. Kana then realized something and started to look about for an escape route.

"How is something this large going to make it past that thin little path before the waterfalls!" she shouted as the hillside loomed up out of the mist the falls generated.

She felt Koi lean over her and hold her tighter to the steed. "Trust him, he knows what he's doing," he whispered into her ear.

"Are you sure?" she gasped. She wasn't sure herself that she knew what she had just asked.

"Yes," Koi said. He held her closer and placed his head beside her own. "Trust Nightwatch… he knows the way."

"Nightwatch? Who's Nightwatch?" she asked. But she suddenly felt her stomach sink into her feet as the horse leaped up and started to run along the steep side of the wall of dirt that the path followed. She looked to their right and saw the falls and the rope bridge below. They were literally climbing the wall.

"WOW!" she shouted as they started to descend rapidly and gain even more speed. "BUT HOW IS HE GOING TO CROSS…"

She could see he was heading for the bridge, but there was no way that he'd be able to cross it!

"Get down close to his back!" Koi told her. She had no choice but to listen to him as he was pushing her down. She hunkered down against the horse's shoulders.

His fur… it was so soft. And was that his heartbeat? His long mane whipped across her face as the world seemed to blur in her view.

She was shoved into his shoulders by a violent thrust. Suddenly there were no more hoof-beats below them – only the roar of the water flowing over the wall beside them. She felt Koi rise up a bit. She looked to their left and saw the water as it dropped down. The view drew her gaze to look over the side of the horse. She saw nothing but foam below them.

It was then that it occurred to her what had happened. He had jumped. It was a massive leap. They were soaring high over the rope bridge. She held her breath expecting a sudden amount of pain as they flew over the chasm, as she was sure the landing was not going to be as amazing as this flight. They passed through a cloud of mist at the center of the falls.

"My god, what are those?" she asked as the vapors showed her the ghostly trails of wings. They vanished as soon as they exited the cloud.

She hardly felt the landing, and their speed dropped only a little as they made the final dash for the Temple.

* * *

Rakka felt the energy swell around her. Unlike the release of Bakuu, this upheaval was being felt not just in the wall, but around the base as well, disrupting a large section and forcing a steady retreat of those around it. The outer gardens were busily being sliced up like a lawn mover was madly at work. Trees were being diced up along the boundary area, and a few old pieces of equipment and buildings were being rendered into small chunks by the powerful discharge.

"Rakka, how do you expect to stop that!" Tom shouted as they rounded the corner behind her. But they stopped when they noticed that her halo was shining rather brightly.

She seemed in a trance to them. She never answered Tom back, only held her hand up for them to stop. She then raised both hands up and held them out.

"I said STOP!" she shouted, and the destruction halted, but only for a moment. It returned, this time sending a crack up the wall and making a stream of light break free of its containment.

She gritted her teeth and readied to try again when she felt two hands grab her and drag her back to her friends.

"NO! YOU MUST LET ME… C-Claudius?" She blinked as she saw the young boy holding her down.

"This is a bit over your head kiddo," he said to her. "This one is being shoved up from underneath, and I doubt even you have the capability to hold it back. Any idea who we're dealing with?"

Rakka grabbed him and began to sob. "Oh! This is it, isn't it?" she bellowed.

"Shhh, shhh," Ptolemy said as he stroked her head with his hand while watching the power flow over the stones behind her. "Maybe yes, maybe no… we won't know until it happens. But I need to know if you've communicated with it… have you?"

She nodded and looked up at him. "He… he called himself Striker… Striker Aries of the Seventh Realm…" She noticed his hand suddenly get tight on her shoulder. "Ow, Claudius, what is it? You're hurting me!"

A vision had flashed over his face. It was an ancient memory of an archangel whose helm was covered in the horns of a ram, just outside his window at his lab, a scythe in its gauntlet covered hands as if it were the Grim Reaper itself. He had just released the core into space as it began to rear back with its weapon. The angel's first strike severed the façade of the marble building off, exposing his lab to his attacker. He watched as chunks of the building flew away. The weapon was swung back in readiness for the final blow.

The detonation of man's attempt to capture God's Power was all that kept this angel from smiting him down with his blade at that moment. Death had surrounded him then but released him by the anti-science set free by the implosion and explosion. Before him only lay the newly formed seven zones and a rain of angels.

He blinked and released his hold on Rakka's shoulder. "Umm… sorry… Striker, ea? Well now, he's going to want my head, that's for sure. We need Katherine here, now…"

"I doubt she will be here in time," the sultry voice of Gabrella said behind them. "She's nowhere to be seen that I can tell."

Ptolemy smirked. "Interesting. Is that why she's behind you right now?"

The demon spun about and found her rival only a fist-length behind her, which threw her to the ground. "You DARE steal one of our Saints!" she shouted. "And not only that, but my former leader!"

The demon wiped her lip and got back up on her feet. "Oh, and he's going to be pleased that you replaced him?" she asked. "I doubt that. In fact, I expect him to slice this place in two at any moment!"

"That is not an option towards conflict resolution," they then heard. "Nor is it your place to determine just what becomes of this Saint!"

The black horse stood there with Kana and Koi on its back. Kana was staring at it in disbelief.

"You… you TALKED!" she squeaked.

"Pardon me, but you may now disembark," the horse told them.

"But… but… it can talk!" Kana complained as she was removed by Koi. When he put her down she shot him an angry glare. She then returned to looking at the horse, but found a tall dark man in a long leather jacket looking down at her. He looked at the boy overtop of her and gestured towards the maelstrom being racked over at the wall.

"Best get in there son," he said. "Otherwise there's going to be a breach in the wall of Glie."

Koi nodded and turned towards Rakka. He held out his hand to her.

"Come with me," he told her. "We together can hold this back."

Ptolemy looked between the two of them. "Are you sure?" he asked as he then glanced at Katherine. She nodded.

"I returned what was taken away," she said.

"Really?" he asked. "And just what did you take away?"

She sighed. "Koi's 'birth' into the holy waters endowed him with special powers. He is a sensitive."

Ptolemy nodded. "Yes, we knew that already… his experience with the NDE spirit told us that… But what else is he?"

Katherine stared at him. "Else?" she said with a slight crack to her voice that caught Gabrella's attention.

Ptolemy watched the two Haibane walk towards the eruption. "He had that power even before you returned his memory, Kat… Please don't lie to me. You're not allowed to lie, remember."

"I… I haven't lied to you!" she nearly burst.

"Then DON'T HOLD THINGS BACK EITHER!" Ptolemy bellowed, almost in the same deep stern adult way he had once spoken. "He's a hunter, isn't he?"

Gabrella stared at the boy in Rakka's grasp. "He's what?"

Ptolemy sighed and glared at Koi. "He's a demon hunter. His saturation in the holy waters of the canal when he had just been 'born' gave him that special ability. He has the capability of seeking demons and other non-ethereal energies and excommunicating them."

Katherine stepped back. "How… how…" she asked.

Ptolemy shook his head. "How did I know? Come now, returning such 'memories' would be an advantage to the attic, would it not? They wouldn't bother returning a simple memory banishment now would they?"

He turned to the Demon-Goddess just as she was smugly going to rub that in. "And you," he snapped. "How dare the basement attempt to usurp the will of a Saint! Just what was going on in Soltarn's pointy head?"

Gabrella looked at him with a shocked expression. "Soltarn… how did you know…"

Ptolemy sneered. "Don't let my age fool you… I know a plan by your clan's war chief when I see it. Let's see if I can guess it… redirect all demonic energy to one point to override any influence the holy waters would have and fire, right? Well did he, or anyone else for that matter, consider the consequences of doing something like that to a Saint!"

A fissure cracked open along the top of the wall and dropped a few boulders to the ground near the Temple's base.

"This will not be a controllable creature that comes out of here, Gabrella," he continued as he gestured towards the bursting wall. "Haven't you heard of 'slow and steady gets the job done'? Well, 'brute force and ignorance' only creates an apocalyptic giant!"

"Stryker!" Katherine called. "Stryker Aries, do you hear me?" She raised her arms and spread her wings as she attempted to touch the mind of her former leader. "Aries, please, I beseech you, talk to me!"

The ground shook, and the wind started to gust much as it had on the day she had been released from the tag that bound her to this place. She watched as a shaft of light burst out the top of the wall, but this time, its glow was a blood red, not the heavenly light blue hers had been. It was followed by a long shaft and blade of a scythe held by a large muscular arm. A wing then shot out and unfurled itself. But this wasn't the tapered golden white wing of an angel – it was a leathery bat-like structure of a demon that stretched out and dominated the sky. It was followed by its mate as the shaft of the weapon was slammed to the ground with a thunderous blow.

"Here he comes…" Ptolemy said as he watched the second arm come forth. "I strongly suggest that you all get back, especially you two." He pointed at the goddess and demon.

"Us?" they both asked.

Ptolemy started to walk forwards towards the two Haibane that stood alone before the creature. "He's out of control by either side now," he told them. "He'll want both of your heads."

* * *

"Are we still in communication with the control center?" Plato asked as they saw the ruckus across the falls from them.

"We lost that almost an hour ago," Janice said. "YIEE!"

Plato spun about to see why she had shrieked so and found the woman ducking under a set of black wings.

"Mabel!" Janice yelped. "What have you been doing, putting your claws in ice water?"

"CAW!" the bird replied as Janice removed her message badge. She opened it and quickly read it.

"Oh damn," she said as she handed it to the director and looked over her shoulder.

"Oh, you said a mouthful," he agreed as he rummaged through his duffel bag and pulled out an old pair of binoculars. "Oh yes, there they are…"

"What? Who is?" Hyohko asked as he and Midori looked skywards. A squint of the eyes allowed them to see very small spots high up.

"That's got to be at least a garrison or two," Plato said. "And they're in full battle dress as well…"

"Seventh Realm?" Dante asked as he covered his eyes from the sun glare.

"Undoubtedly," the director said, "which means Katherine must be here somewhere."

Midori looked back towards the Temple. "She's probably there already."

Plato looked over the side of the precipice that made up the river's left bank. "One can only wonder what's coming up from underneath then," he said.

* * *

Katherine stepped forwards and joined Ptolemy. He glanced up at her as he continued towards Koi and Rakka.

"Not going to listen to me, are you?" he stated more than asked.

"I appreciate your concern, but I'm not the same angel you released a few months ago," she said with a smile. "I can handle myself."

He nodded. "Oh, I understand that as well my dear," he said. "I was more intent on not riling him up further when he finds he's not the commandant of the Seventh anymore. And as for you," he told the dark woman now walking to his other side, "I was told that Stryker was never a demon lover."

Gabrella smirked. "That should make him even more unhappy now that we nearly turned him into one," she laughed. She saw the glare that the Goddess was giving her and she snorted. "It's water under the bridge now, Bakuu."

Koi kneeled down. Rakka did as well. Neither seemed exceptionally aware of their surroundings, which was nearly more than Kana could stand. It was taking all the strength of both Joshua and Tom to keep her back. Cinder stood next to the old Communicator and stared as her mentor began to pray before the volcano that was erupting before her.

"Are you watching this Nightwatch?" Ptolemy yelled back at the tall man next to them as the wind began to swirl about them.

"Observing and reporting," he replied. "Any messages?"

Ptolemy looked up at the towering behemoth that was now coming out of the light. It was dressed very much like the archangel that almost struck him down long ago, but distorted by the manipulation and transformation it had gone through, and any human-like appearance was twisted by the demonic overlay. He swallowed.

"Let your folks know that I would very much like my final request readied - on my command," he told him.

"Understood… standing by." Nightwatch stood like a statue with a communications device in his hand.

Ptolemy looked at the two with him. "Ladies, show time," he said and walked into the storm.

Katherine stopped and stared at the young scientist, which caught Gabrella's attention as well.

"What is that?" the Goddess asked.

The demon looked in the direction her rival had been and saw what she meant. Two red streaks were running down the back of Ptolemy's white shirt.

"Blood?" she asked herself.

Stryker saw one of the figures below him and burned. It matter little to him that his target was somehow much younger, the fact that it was still his primary objective, the final subject he remembered prior to being sealed within the metal and stone of the cavern below the walls was all that filled his world at that moment. The scythe reared back.

Katherine threw her arms wide causing a burst of wind that countered the gusts coming from the wall. "Stryker! Stop!" she called out.

"Oh, that's impressive," Tom said as he, Kana and Joshua stood and gaped at the Goddess.

Katherine noticed that Gabrella was moving away from her with an almost scared expression on her face. She was holding her left arm up as if shielding herself from something behind her. She glanced over her shoulder to see what it might be and was shocked at what it was.

Serendipity and Faith, her proto-angel she had taken within herself, had come forth and was mimicking her stance and adding her powers to her own. She felt a swell of energy flow through her wings. Her fingers tingled. She knew she could now deal with this problem… maybe…

The eruption of the proto-angel seemed to not faze Stryker as he had his own objective and target. He swung the blade down at Ptolemy, who was now covering the two Haibane.

Katherine sent a vortex of wind at her former leader, but not in time to stop the blow of the sickle. But again, she was surprised as she had been on the day of her own launch, to watch the weapon fly from the hand of Stryker Aries and impale itself into the roof of the Temple. The gust then made him stumble back against the wall where he let loose a ground rumbling shout of pain.

Katherine and Gabrella looked down at the scientist expecting to see a severed body, but what they saw made them stand back in shock.

Ptolemy stood up and glared at the monster that had been a Saint. A pair of bloody red wings was now protruding out of his back. Greasy sack liquids had splattered across his shirt and were dripping from the feathers. "That was naughty," he told the monster who had tried to smite him. "Now Nightwatch!"

"Raise shields," the Observer said to the com unit.

"Injectors to full - Shields up to maximum power," the reply came. "Standby for zero emissions in five seconds... Frequency blockage, all channels..."

The proto-angel suddenly looked up and stopped mimicking her host. She silently screamed as she melted back into Katherine's back. The Goddess felt her powers drop substantially, and her attack on Stryker faded.

The demonic Saint was also looking up as the streamer of light coming from the wall dropped as well.

"Now you two," Ptolemy said to the Haibane. "Force the demon out!"

"NO!" Gabrella shouted. "You can't do that!"

Ptolemy turned towards her as Koi and Rakka prayed beside him. "Stryker Aries is NOT a demon… he was an archangel of the highest order. You have no say or right to him or ANY of the Saints in these walls! That was the agreement that your side made with the other side. If Lucifer has any problems with that, he can ask _ME_ directly!"

Rakka stood up and held her hands out. "Aries, I can feel you in there… please… please come to me… you are not a demon… you are an angel… please…"

"Rakka, what are you doing!" Kana shouted as she watched her friend start to walk towards the creature that had now settled to a hard-panting heap against the wall.

"She is doing her job," the Communicator said.

Kana glared at him. "Her JOB! What the hell are you talking about! What has this to do with HER JOB!"

"She is cleansing the soul of someone who has been sin-bound," he calmly said as the others continued to hold the girl back. Cinder, Toki and Chip all looked at him in awe.

"Is… is that what we've been doing?" Toki asked. "Have we been cleaning sin?"

"To a degree, yes," the old man said as Kana lessened her fidgeting. "The material that builds up on the tags does not encroach on its own." He looked at the Demon-Goddess. "It has help."

Gabrella snorted. "It's not like you give us much reason not to try," she grumbled. "Proper representation to the holy sites would help us not to HAVE to do that."

"Attacking defenseless angels is hardly a persuasive way to get that now is it?" Nightwatch noted. "Whatever becomes of this, be ready Gabrella… You're about to have a seriously injured demon to care for…"

She looked back at the creature that had been forced down by the removal of its energy source. Rakka's calling to the angel within it was beginning to draw the true Stryker Aries out. Now Koi stood up and held one hand to his face as if it were a blade and followed the smaller girl towards the beast.

"In the name of the holy father and the spirits of the angels that guide us all," he chanted in a near whisper, "be gone vile monster… In the name of the holy father and the spirits of the angels…"

Ptolemy now followed. He held up a small scanner and took readings. "Split it NOW!" he shouted.

Koi sliced down with his hand, and a line was drawn across the body of the creature. Rakka now stepped up to its side and reached in.

An ethereal white hand reached out and grabbed hers. Koi stood beside her and reached in as well, grabbing the second hand. They both pulled as hard as they could.

* * *

Sol sat down on the edge of her bed. She was removing the cumbersome wing-plates to allow her injuries some air, per the doctor's orders. She would need someone's help to replace them later, but she could do the removing herself – though even now it would have been nice for someone to be there…

She grunted and twisted to get to the thumbscrews that made it look like she was wearing mechanical wings. The first set of plates fell to the bed with a clatter. The second set on her left wing was being a problem. It felt like one of the bolts had snagged a feather, as it shot a searing pain down her spine.

"Sorry I am to see you this like," she heard. She held her breath and spun about. There she found a red rose in her face held by a small green demon.

"Better I hope you be?" Jester asked her as he scraped his toe along the linoleum tiles while holding the flower.

"What… what are YOU doing here?" she asked him.

"See you I wanted to, yes!" he said with a grin. "Thank you I do want please!"

"Thank me? What for?" she asked as the pain hit her again. Before she knew it, the imp was up on the bed holding the form up and removing the last thumbscrew. He lifted the plates and sighed when he saw the wings hidden underneath.

"You Jester save did you," he said as he examined the moist darkened wings. Small tips of new feathers could be seen coming out from under some of the worst spots. "I am humbled and debt in yours."

Sol stood up and looked at him. "Well, I… umm… I appreciate what you say, but… really, you're not supposed…"

Jester held his finger up to her mouth. "Trouble to you I be not be… I assist you do I… make you all better will I!"

She waved her hands about. "Jester, how DID you get in here!" she now demanded.

"Umm… leave open door did big man… I sneak out open gate… Claudius' boss," the demon said as he fiddled with his fingers.

Sol placed her hands on her cheeks. "Plato let you out? Oh, this is too much!"

"Please! Please let stay Jester!" he begged. "I only wish to be with Sol! Me help Haibane!"

Sol stood upright. She was surprised by the little demon's request. "What? Jester, you know you can't stay here! You don't even fit in here!"

"Me fix that!" he said. "Around turn."

Sol looked at him with an unsure expression. She slowly turned about, but only briefly did she take her eyes off the imp. But when she returned her view to him, the demon was missing. In his place was a teenage boy roughly her size and age. He had shoulder length black hair and the greenest eyes she had ever seen.

He also had nothing on, since the imp he had once been had not been wearing anything either.

"See? Stay me! No tell anyone!"

'Until he speaks,' ran through Sol's head as her eyebrows twitched and a sweat drop fell off her brow.

"Umm…"

"Yes? Yes?" Jester asked expectantly.

"Umm… c-clothes?"

The demon boy looked down. "Nope… none here!" he said with glee. It was when he looked up and saw the expression on her face that he finally realized what she meant.

"Ooooh… wardrobe!" he said as he snapped his finger and was instantly dressed in a tux. He looked at it and shook his head.

"Much too…" he said. Now he was in a fireman's suit. He grunted and snapped his fingers again.

Cowboy…

Police Officer…

Baseball player…

Sumo… (Sol nearly fell over with that one)

Military of some sort… Possibly Sgt. Pepper…

Astronaut…

It finally sank in that this was going to be harder than he thought. He sat on the edge of the bed and snapped his finger one last time. "Give up I do," he said as he was covered in a simple pair of pants and a t-shirt.

Sol giggled. "Well, at least that's the closest you've been to normal clothes," she said. "But you do know that you still wouldn't be able to stay here. Humans aren't supposed to be here at Old Home except the housemother."

"Human me not!" Jester snapped.

Sol sat beside him. "Funny, you look human… almost…"

Jester blinked at her. "Do I? I do course I! Hummm… This maybe…"

He stuck his thumb in his mouth and blew. Two wings popped out of his back, though they were under his t-shirt, which caused the neck to nearly strangle him. He scrambled to remove the over-garment to show her. When he looked at her though, he could tell something was wrong.

"What?" he asked.

Sol shook her head. "I don't think so… they are hardly Haibane wings," she nearly laughed.

He looked back and saw that he had brought out his normal demon wings – leathery and green.

"Bad wings! Bad! Bad!" he scolded them. He then gritted his teeth and concentrated. Sol watched feathers pop across the surface of his appendages in an extremely random pattern. When he was finished, he had gray fluff all over in a higgledy-piggledy sort of layout. He let go of his straining exercise and panted.

"There… feathers… yours like…" he wheezed.

She looked at her own wings in a mirror on the dresser across from them. She would be lucky if her own wings grew back to look as messy as his. She sighed and turned towards him.

"Why do you want to help me?" she asked him. "You know you'll only get in…"

She suddenly found him kissing her. It was brief, and a bit sloppy. As he pulled away she hardly had a breath in her. He looked at the floor between his feet and scuffed the tiles.

"Me love…" he said in an almost whisper. He glanced up at her. She still had a stunned look on her face. He sighed.

"No one ever treated me like you did," he said. It shocked her even further, as this was the first time he had ever spoken in a normal unbroken speech. He hung his head and shook it. "My sister probably would skin me if I did anyway… I should go…"

Sol reached down and took his hand in hers. "Maybe not… but not like this," she said. "Not in secret…"

"Secret?" he asked as she lifted his hand up. "Mean what you do?" So much for unbroken speech…

She smiled at him. "First of all, you must ask permission to stay."

"But already me ask you," he stated.

She shook her head. "Not me… technically, I don't belong here either. No, you must ask Claudius."

Jester twisted his face and looked about. "Claudius?" he asked.

Sol nodded. "You know, the Professor…"

He continued to look about in a slight daze. "You wish I ask dead man to stay Glie in?"

Sol blinked. "Oh, you weren't here… Mr. Ptolemy returned… he came out of a cocoon last night!"

Jester now looked at her as if she were nuts. "My tail pull you!" he cracked. He saw her shake her head. "Back old man?" he then asked.

"Old boy you mean," she added. "He is now a young man."

Jester sat and stared at the far wall, a perplexed look on his face. He scratched his head then cocked it to one side then the other. He shook it. He blinked twice. He then burst out laughing.

"Old man back! Old man back!" he cheered. He bounced a few times on the bed and finally stood up. He spun about and found that he had bounced Sol flat onto her back. "Great this is!"

"Umm… you're molting," she said as she righted herself and waved a few feathers out of her face.

Jester grinned and snapped his finger. The feathers on his wings reset into a normal pattern. A dark green shirt now covered him. He then looked at Sol. She had something he didn't, and if he was going to blend in, he needed one as well. He looked up.

He snapped his fingers again. A small ball of flame erupted over his head, and it spun about until it formed a rudimentary halo. But it was still only a swirl of fire. It also didn't help that it was a green fire to boot!

"Do that won't," he grumbled and swatted the fire out. He looked around as if he were looking for something. "Need mold or form…" he mused as he searched the room.

"Ah, here wait," he said as he vanished. The drapes next to the window moved slightly as something whisked out it.

Jester reappeared deep in the Western Woods and the altar of the wrecked church. There he found his perfect mold – the discarded husk of a Haibane halo. He looked at it and spun it about. He even bit it to see how hard it was.

"Good metal – easily held," he said as he put it over his head and spun it. It listed slightly to one side. He gritted his teeth and made it hold position better.

"Gooder," he said to himself as he dashed back to Old Home.

Sol was looking out the window as a gust of wind blew her hair back. She looked behind herself and saw that the boy had returned. But this time he had a black halo over his head.

"What is that?" she asked. It took her a moment to realize just what was hanging over the demon's head. She gasped. "Jester, tell me you didn't take a spent halo from their prayer site?"

He was busy examining her halo and looking at his own. "To me it called," he said as he pointed at it. "It say 'me use' did it." He snapped his fingers again and it began to glow – not the golden glow that the normal Haibane halo put out, but a reddish color that almost made it look hot. He reached up and acted as if he were turning a knob on the side of his head. The color shifted slightly, getting the more proper yellow to the light, but still retaining the red ever so slightly.

"There," he smiled. "Why cigarette do feel I need?"

Sol slapped her forehead.

* * *

Koi and Rakka nearly had the angel free of the demonic skin that had covered it. Stryker had at first held tight to their hands, but now he seemed to be loosing his grip.

"Something is not right here!" Koi shouted. "He seems to be loosing strength!"

"You've cut off his energy," Gabrella shouted. "You've got to open the shield again!"

Ptolemy looked at the readings on his spectral scanner and grimaced. "If I do that, we will have a war on our hands," he said as he looked over his shoulder. "The Seventh Realm is on the outside above us. The Twelfth Dragoon is below us as we speak. Open the field and we risk them attacking right here, right now."

"He will die if you don't," Nightwatch said bluntly. "The decision is yours of course, but either way will be dangerous."

Rakka shook her head. She realized finally where she was and what she was doing. She looked beside her and saw Koi hanging onto the other arm of the angel they were attempting to remove from the husk.

"Koi, we have to give him what we can," she said as she started to pull harder.

"This demon isn't helping much," he said. "And I'm not sure just what we have to give him."

"Can't you feel it? Just like when you felt that spirit before?" she asked. "We've got to do it, or there might be a war because we couldn't save them… BOTH of them!"

Koi looked up at the sliced husk that they were removing Stryker Aries from. Even with the hole in its side, it seemed alive. It was as if they were the surgeons and this was an operation. He grunted and concentrated.

Rakka nodded and began to attempt the same. She thought of sending her own energy to the stricken angel as they both pulled hard on their heels and hauled for all they were worth.

"We've got to help them!" Toki yelped as she ran towards the pair. Chip followed closely behind. Before Ptolemy, Katherine or Gabrella knew it they had joined the two Haibane in dragging Aries out.

* * *

"UH!" Bloodeagle grunted from her seat at the end of the Gideon Span. She reached back at a phantom pain that racked her back. "What is this?" she asked the sky. "Why do I feel the twinge of these feathers that no longer belong to me?" She looked up the northwestern path.

_"Setsu, Setsu, what are you doing on that wall?"_ rang through her head. She remembered looking down at Professor Ptolemy as he was looking up at her.

_"These wings, do you ever think they will let me fly?"_ the child she had been asked him. _"Are these truly the wings of angels waiting for a breeze?"_

_"It depends, dear,"_ he told her as he placed his hat on and readied his trip back to his world so long ago. _"Do you feel that breeze picking up?"_

She looked out towards the Western Woods. _"What I feel right now is betrayed,"_ she said as she moved to be collected by the old man. _"No one listens to me… no one cares…"_

She felt him hold her close. _"Then tell me,"_ he said. _"What is the problem Setsu?"_

Bloodeagle sighed. "Why are these ghosts here?" she asked. "Why are they now wanting to come forth and remind me of… his kindness?"

She took her staff and slowly lifted herself from her chair. She picked up her mono-eye and looked at it. She placed it to her face and looked about.

"Ah, I see… The confrontation is here…" she said to herself. "But what is this? A third party comes and interferes? Interesting… I must see what becomes of this."

She slowly turned and headed for Sinner's Rock.

* * *

"What is this?" Ptolemy asked as he looked at his readings. "Do I have to let the power flow again to save them? Is that the only way?" He then held his breath and looked at the two Haibane struggling with the fallen angel.

Feathers were falling from their wings. Not just a few, whole clumps were dropping.

"NO! NO YOU TWO!" he shouted and leapt in. "You do not have enough power to feed him your own energy!" He pulled Rakka then Koi away and took their place.

Rakka fell to the ground as if someone had hit her in the belly and knocked the wind out of her. Koi followed beside her. "What… what happened?" she gasped.

Ptolemy glared at the angel he now had in his hands. He looked at Toki and Chip and gestured to really lean back.

"Come on you idiot!" he yelled at Stryker. "I'm your target! Get a MOVE ON!"

The limp hand that Ptolemy held suddenly grabbed his arm.

"That's it," he said as he pulled. "Get angry and get out!"

Katherine joined Toki on her side while Gabrella joined Chip on his to assist.

"No, no!" Ptolemy called out. "Get on his wings! That's what's holding him back!"

Katherine looked into the demonic skin and saw that he was right. The wings were slowly sliding out of the leather ones. She reached in and pulled the right side down, causing Stryker to slide a bit to Toki's side. She looked at Gabrella, who seemed unable to do the same on her side. She reached over and pulled on the left set until it began to come out as well.

"That's got it!" Ptolemy said as he gained ground. Finally the body pulled away from the demon as they all fell backwards.

"Quickly," he said out of breath to Gabrella as he pointed to the demon skin. "You'd better do something about his wound."

Toki gasped for air and looked up. "Hey," she said. "What happened to your wings?"

Ptolemy looked at her confused and out of breath. "Wings? What wings?"

Katherine looked at the boy. Sure enough, the wings that had come out so messily before were now gone, though the shirt was still splattered with wing grease and blood.

"This is… strange…" she said as she attempted to assist her former leader. But as she placed her hand on his head, she found it passing through it.

"Something's wrong," Gabrella shouted from the side of the demon skin. "I can't heal the wound!"

"Stryker Aries is fading away to nothingness!" Katherine yelped.

Ptolemy looked back at Nightwatch and nodded.

"Open the shield," the Observer said to his com unit.

"Cooling injectors," a reply came. "Incoming bogies at zero – zero – two - seven mark twelve and four – four – eight – four - mark twenty-seven. Contact in three minutes."

"Acknowledged," Nightwatch said in a deep grumpy tone. "Do you wish intervention?" he then asked Ptolemy.

The young scientist only nodded as he watched the angel dissipate on the ground. Behind him, the demon was starting to turn to a rocky substance. The upper part of the body and wings were already starting to crumble into dust.

"No!" Rakka said from the ground. "No! They can't die! They can't!"

Ptolemy sighed. "I'm sorry child," he said. "We… I was too late to restore the energy field… we've lost them…"

Katherine glared at her rival as she stood up from the vanishing angel. "This is all your fault… If your side had NOT started this…"

"Oh, like we had any choice…" Gabrella started in on the Goddess.

"LET us NOT cast the first stones!" Ptolemy shouted at the two of them. "Damn it, I just lost a son! What is lost is lost. Before we loose anything more, may I suggest that you call your two sides off?"

They stood and glared at each other.

**"NOW!"** the boy shouted at the top of his lungs. "OR DO I HAVE TO RAISE THE **SHIELDS** AGAIN! I KNOW WHERE TO GET A **BASEBALL BAT** WITH _BOTH_ OF YOUR NAMES ON IT!"

They both looked at him in shock.

"If I have to BEAT some sense into you two, _**I WILL!"**_ he said as he spun about and stormed away. "Now CALL THEM OFF!" He nodded to Nightwatch.

"Send in the mediator," he told him. The large man bowed to him. He turned and left the field of destruction while conversing on his communicator.

"Ow…"

"Ow – Ow – OW!"

Rakka looked up as she regained some of her wind. It sounded to her as if someone was being stabbed next to her. She found Toki doubled over beside her. She was feverishly reaching for her back with an expression of utter pain streaming across her face. Then Chip, who had been kneeling on all fours beside Koi, crumpled as well.

"Chip? Toki?" she asked as they fell to the ground in extreme pain. She saw something move under their shirts and gasped. She wheeled around looking for something. She saw her gauntlets near Kana's feet and bolted for them.

"Koi! Quickly!" she squealed as she tossed one to him and gathered Toki in her arms. She folded the glove over and raised her head.

"Quickly, bite down on this!" she ordered the scar girl. Tears were pouring off Toki's face as she looked up at Rakka in terror. The Communicator now was by her side as well.

"We must get her shirt off, or she will break them as they come out," he said as he pulled a curved bladed knife out. He sliced of fabric away then tossed the knife to Koi's side for him to do the same with Chip.

"How is this possible?" Cinder asked as she and Kana looked on. The rolling skin under the ugly scars of where they had both once had wings was obvious to everyone.

"You two were attempting to transfer your life force to Stryker, weren't you?" Ptolemy asked as he bent down to assist. "You know that was impossible."

Rakka looked at him as she struggled to keep Toki still. "How did you know?"

Ptolemy smiled at her. "I saw your feathers start to fall – a loss of internal energy will cause that. That was why I pulled you away. Any longer, and you could have become a scar."

"Is that what happened to yours then?" Kana asked.

Ptolemy looked up at her in puzzlement. "What are you talking about?" he asked her. "First she said I had wings, then you too… What wings?" He looked over his shoulder to see if he had missed something. "Hey… how did I mess up my shirt?" he asked.

"He must have transferred his own wings to them," Katherine said as she looked up. She held her hand up and signed to the oncoming warriors."

"Toga?" Rakka said as she read what the Goddess had said in her hand movements.

There was a cracking sound that brought Rakka's attention back to the matter at hand. Toki bit down hard on the gauntlet. There was then a spurt of blood and a popping sound as the wings of a Haibane flew wide of her back, splattering everyone around the flaying wet feathers.

Janice and Dante stepped back as the scream of someone it pain washed over the falls, having never heard such a yell before. Plato stood and stared at the Temple and sighed.

"That… that was the sound made by…" Hyohko said but was interrupted by a second yell of pain.

"…Wings," Midori said. "Someone just got their wings up there! How can that be? There aren't any New Feathers up at the Temple."

Janice nearly leapt when her cell phone chirped. She popped it open and listened.

"Automatic system is reporting in," she told them. "The situation has stabilized… code… Delta…"

Dante shivered and sighed. He looked as if the world had been both taken off his shoulders and then dropped right back down on them.

Plato looked back at Janice. "Intervention by the Denivan… it's about time." He turned about and started to head back down the road.

"Denivan?" Hyohko asked now even more confused. "What the heck is a Denivan?"

Plato smirked. "Another group that The Observers are associated with," he said.

"The Observers? The bunch that this Nightwatch guy is with?" Hyohko asked.

"He probably called them in after all this," Plato huffed as he lifted some of Janice's equipment up for her. "They might not run The Observers outright, but they do work closely enough that they tend to become indistinguishable at times. And besides, in their language Denivan means Peacemakers."

* * *

Bloodeagle entered a clearing off the path leading towards the Scar's Village. She uncovered a white stone that was partly buried in the soil. She then sat on it and began to meditate. She felt her world spin and sway as she drifted about the cosmos attempting to figure out the feelings she had felt shortly before.

_"My day of flight?"_ her younger self asked the old man as he lead her out of the courthouse after the trail of her former boss. _"What I said in there, is it going to affect my day of flight?"_

The old scientist looked down on her and smiled. _"Of course not – you remember your cocoon dream, do you not? You understand what your true name means, correct?"_

She nodded as the snow began to fall. _"Yes, but if I do, from what you told me, shouldn't I be ready to fly?"_

Ptolemy scratched his chin. _"It is not uncommon for a Haibane to know their dream's true meaning and not have their day of flight right away. But you do have a point,"_ he told her as they descended the stairs. _"We will have to look into this… In the meantime, you're safe now from your former employer… we'll have to find you a new opportunity soon if your day of flight is delayed further…"_

_"Maybe I should just go out into the Western Woods and wait,"_ she replied as they crunched along the snow-covered street south.

_"Do you feel flighty?"_ he asked her. _"Waiting might not be the right thing to do – in this weather you'll only catch your death of cold."_

She sighed and clung to his arm. _"I don't know… I'm confused…"_

He laughed. _"You and me both, kiddo… you and me both…"_

The winter had passed by without a single feeling of flight in her. She did know her true name, the meaning of her dream, and she had been the perfect Haibane… why wasn't she flying away from this place? The others were now ribbing her relentlessly, saying she must be hiding something. In some cases, it was almost to the level of torment. She would hide out with Thido in the clock tower at Old Home when it became too much.

And now, the town folk weren't allowing her to work. She had turned against her former employer, even though he had been found guilty of molesting her. She was now marked as untrustworthy.

She became depressed. She would climb the wall and look into the Western Wood for hours just wishing that the day would come she would be urged to take that walk she had only seen twice before. There were a few times she even secretly wandered to the old church in the woods and sit and stare at the discarded rings at the alter until Town Watch or Thido would usher her home.

Then the day came that she left a note on her bed. _"I will fly,"_ it said. _"Come hell or fire, I will fly."_

Bloodeagle sighed as the memory of the pain the earth invoked upon her body then shot through her once again. In an instant of despair, a Haibane without sin had created her own.

She turned her attention to the Temple, and the two Scars who now had become Haibane again. "Have you just created two more just like me?" she asked the young vision of her protector who was attending to the pair. "Or have you found a release for them?"

Toki and Chip were taken to the Renmei dorms. The Haibane-Renmei would see to them for the time being, until their situation settled and more was known about their condition.

Repairs had already started on the Temple by the Toga and Watch members. The halo mold had been unearthed from the rubble of a collapsed wall and had been cleaned up for use. Rakka and Koi made up the paste that would make the ring of gold for the two returned souls. Finding a working heat source was being difficult, as the main kitchens to the Temple had taken the burnt of the damage from the rampage earlier. They finally found an open gas jet that allowed them to 'cook' the material 'the old fashioned way' the Communicator told them.

An hour or so later, Rakka and Koi came into the bedroom with the resting Toki with the first halo. Because of the awkward way the prep work had to be done, Koi was handling the hot mold with Rakka's gauntlets, while she was handling the tongs. He had to be careful to keep a section of his exposed hand away from the heat, as the right glove now had a flapping hole in it from where Chip had bitten through it.

"This is odd…" Ptolemy said as they watched. Rakka had taken the hot ring out with the tongs and attempted to leave it over Toki's head. But it nearly scalded her as it bounced off her hair and clanged to the floor.

"It did not seem to even attempt to stay," the Communicator said. "Could it be that her Haibane energy has not fully returned? It was more of a struggle with her wings as well this time…"

Ptolemy scratched his head. "You're the one with the answers about this one, brother," he said as he took the tongs from Rakka and picked up the wayward halo. "Let me see…"

"Could they just be your wings and not mine?" Toki weakly asked from her belly as he held the halo over her head again.

"That is what I'm trying to find out my dear," he told her as he felt the halo on the end of the tongs. It seemed to twitch a bit. "I still don't remember having those wings."

"This almost feels like the day my halo fell," she said in a nearly drowsy state. "It dropped into my lap, and I attempted to put it back up there twice. I finally dropped it into the Fountain of Tears in the Scar's Village."

A twinge - It was ever so slight, but Ptolemy felt a vibration jump through the halo. He smiled.

"Get a halo holder ready… it just needs some help," he said.

* * *

Katherine stood before her garrison as their staffs were lowered in mourning over the loss of their former leader. A chorus was singing a hymn somewhere as the flag-bearers tromped their poles to the floor seven times.

But her mind was on her adversary. They had both attempted to save Stryker Aries, even if Gabrella had complained about it. Was it too much to seek a peaceful reconciliation? The memory of her punching her flashed over her mind, and she winced.

A mediator had been called. The Denivan was coming. All she could do was wait. And then here would be the inquisitor. More fuel for the fire… Damn!

* * *

Nemu sat down at the table in the guest bedroom having listened to the wild story Kana had related to her. Hikari was in the kitchenette making a fresh pot of tea.

"Where's Sol?" Nemu asked. "I would have thought she would have wanted someone to replace her wing-forms for her."

"I haven't seen her all day," the housemother said as she entered the room with a bag of groceries. "I was going to ask her to help me with these, but she seems to have disappeared."

"Huh," Kana said as she bit into a cookie. "Odd… she's normally right here to greet us… with all that went down today, I wonder if something happened here as well… see, there's her wing-forms on her bed."

"Did anyone check her tag on the posting board?" Hikari asked as she brought the tea cups out.

Kana looked out over the balcony towards the gateway arch. "It doesn't look like the visitor's tag has been moved," she said. "Oh, wait a minute, there she is… in the field across the way…"

Hikari joined her on the terrace. "Oh yes, I see her too… who is that with her though?"

Kana peered harder with her hand over her eyes. "Drat… I left my binoculars over in the bell tower," she cursed.

She spied down over the field at the pair from the high window of the clock tower using Kana's spy glasses. She smiled as she watched them laugh at each other's silliness. And she then took a double-take when she saw them kiss behind the tree just outside the path back up to Old Home.

"My dear brother…" Gabrella grinned. "This should be interesting!"

oOo

_**Play the RPG Sadako's Well on AnimeMangaWorld! - Email for the address**_

_**Join the Renmei - Visit the C2 Community and Discussion Forums of Charcoal Feathers of Glie & Surrounding Territories here on FFN!**_

Characters from Sadako's Well – Toki, Chip by R.A. Stott ©2005-2011 S.E. Nordwall & R.A. Stott

Character Setsu from the FFN FanFic "Darkness" ©2005-2011 TeaRoses – Used with Permission

Character name Bloodeagle ©2005-2011 S.E. Nordwall – Used with Permission

Sgt. Pepper from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band ©1967 The Beatles/NEMS/Apple Records/Capitol Records/EMI

Gabrella ©2005-2011 The Lugia Project/Denivan Media Services – Used with Permission

Nightwatch, Doctor Abigail McManus, Captain Roy Strom, Scanning Rods, The Observers, The Denivan ©2005-2011 Denivan Media Services – Used with permission

Characters from Haibane-Renmei ©2005-2011 Yoshitoshi ABe

©2005-2011 The Golden Halo Project/DMS

Edit & Remastered 1106.15


	8. Observers, Overseers and Aliens

**.**

**2 0 1 1 - R E V I S I O N**

**-O-**

**H A I B A N E - R E N M E I :**

**C O R P O R A T I O N**

Chapter Eight

**Observers, Overseers and Aliens**

By R. A. Stott

"Commander on deck!"

"Report!"

A young Ensign trotted up to the base of the Captain's Loft as the second in command of the ship climbed to the top, two half floors above the bridge's flight deck. The junior officer flipped a clipboard device out from under his arm and started reciting to his senior from it.

"Sir, we have six ships out mapping the outer edges of the shielded areas of the sub-dimensional levels. Since these sub-levels are so close to the primary level that supports it, determination on just where the shields start and end for each is being difficult. The Astrometrics lab and the chief programmer are still working on a solution to automatically rotate the scanner harmonics…"

The Commander nodded. "Have we figured out the actual entry level frequency modulation to pass through them yet?" he asked as he punched up readouts on his control boards that surrounded the Captain's seat.

The Ensign shook his head. "No sir, not yet," he said. "And technically, The Corporation is not allowed to tell us the codes either. We could try a wide spectrum signal, but it would alert everyone that we were here."

"Which would kind of ruin our observations, now wouldn't it?" the Commander pointed out with a smirk. "Though it's not like they don't already know that we're up here… so much for the low-keyed approach. How many Widgets do we have available?"

The Ensign tapped on the board in his hands. "We have six available, with the seventh and eighth under construction. Are you considering using one, sir?"

He tapped on his lip with his thumb. "They take weeks to build new ones," he murmured to himself. "But, it would get us those frequencies without letting our location be known."

"And the Captain has made it clear that they're only for special occasions where the ship or the mission would be in jeopardy if they weren't used," the Ensign added. The Commander looked down at him.

"Well, it's good to hear you've been listening to your teachers, cadet," he told him. "Have the pod-gang ready one, but only up to stage one, okay?"

"Yes sir," the Ensign replied with a series of additional taps to his PADD. "We haven't been told exactly what a Widget fully does, sir… only that they're only to be used as a last resort."

The Commander leaned back. "Well, I wouldn't make it sound like it's such a desperate thing… they're just so difficult and touchy to make and keep that you need to choose your uses wisely."

The Ensign scratched his head with his PADD. "So just what does it do?" he asked.

The Commander looked at the ceiling. "Well, you do understand that everything emits a frequency, right?"

The Ensign nodded. "If it has mass, it has a frequency," he recited from his text.

"Right, even if that mass is energy, gas, solid, liquid, what have you," the Commander continued. "A Widget is designed to take a snap-shot of every frequency within a given universe, and then decipher them."

"Isn't that kind of… impossible?" he asked.

"No… not really," the Commander replied. "There's been devices to read frequencies like that for a very long time, just not as accurate, precise, and thorough. It can also calculate and predict variable frequencies."

The Ensign thought about that for a moment. "Wouldn't that overload it quickly though? I mean, that sounds like a burn out waiting to happen."

"That's why S.A.M. has that great huge memory bank that you're standing on, Ensign," the man at the helm station said. "Widgets fry themselves almost as soon as they're released."

"Right, without the S.A.M. System, a Widget is useless," the Commander finished. "When they are set loose, they take their readings and flash-download into S.A.M., who then is capable of slowly digesting it as needed."

"Yes, but didn't I hear something about loosing all the data that the previous Widget did?" the Ensign asked while looking at all the readout stations on the second tier on the loft. On a busy mission day, each post would have been manned by a crewperson. But at the moment, only one girl was at the post at the far end of the row.

"Only if we don't do a data-dump to the S.A.M. Master Core on Deniva," the Commander noted, "which we haven't as of yet, which is another reason why we only want to use one of them as a last resort, otherwise, we'll need to go back to our last mission and redo those readings."

"Which, I would also assume, is why we are using these old-styled sensor probes around these zones here to try and detect their shield frequencies?" the Ensign surmised with a gesture towards a monitor showing the pod launchers deploying large round orbs that, once clear of the ship, extended a bristling array of antennas. They then moved into groups as they awaited commands.

"That would be why," the Commander agreed as he tapped on some of his monitor's controls to see what was going on outside the ship. "Make sure the P-Gang understands that I want ONLY stage one, okay? Any higher would start activating things that could ruin the Widget, or worse, start a download purge of S.A.M.'s data banks. Got that?"

"Yes sir," the Ensign snapped to. "In the mean time, I would assume that our flight will be watching over the deployment of the sensor probes?"

The Commander lifted his large glasses and rubbed his right eye. "That would be correct. Who's on the watch then?"

"Mr. Kinza, sir…" the young officer said as he looked down his PADD. "He's in ship number twelve."

The Commander raised an eyebrow. "What's he doing in my Scat-Back?" he jokingly pondered seeing he was the one who had told him to use that particular small one-man fighter. He punched up a monitor next to himself.

"Forrestal to Scat-Back Twelve… You got me Kinza?" the Commander asked the screen.

"Mr. Button! What got you out of bed at this god-awful hour in the morning?" the pilot mockingly asked.

The Commander looked at the normal Captain's chair and swapped it with his custom unit from his normal post at the science station, which fit his round orb-shaped body better. "Duty, diligence and service," he mumbled through weeping eyes. "Serves me right, getting the late-night shift after I spent the last twenty hours helping set all the probes with the P-Gangs for this run."

There was a laugh over the comm. "You knew the job was dangerous when you took it."

Mr. Button planted himself in his chair and now rubbed both eyes and smiled. "Great. I'm getting philosophy from someone whose probably shedding all over my ship's controls."

"Hey, I combed out all my knots this morning," the furry officer at the helm of the small fighter craft stated as he swept his right paw over his left arm in a mock attempt to scatter some of his hair on the equipment. This bemused Mr. Button.

"What's your status, Mr. Kinza?" he asked.

He looked out of the small ship's canopy at the assembling of probes. "We'll be ready to do our scans as soon as you get that big boat of yours out of the way," he cracked.

"A boat?" the Commander laughed. "You'd better not let the Captain hear you call her that!" He nodded to the man at the helm station below him. "Bring us up Mr. Tolefson."

"Leaving lower scanning field – Z plus fifteen thousand meters," the helmsman replied to the command as he drew back on his controls.

Thrusters below the massive starship rumbled to life as it lifted out of the area the six smaller ships were about to work in. Below them sat seven suspended lands, each with their own unique ecologies and terrains. They in turn were anchored to locations scattered across the planet they served, yet, in this transient space they dwell in between the universes, they remain clustered together in a chain of seven, the land below them only a ghostly reminder to them that they once were part of the surface.

_"This is a very different place that we will be observing on this mission,"_ the captain had explained to his crew. _"We have been brought in to do our normal duties by my superior commander, but it will also be our job to investigate him, as well as well his rival. This is a unique universe, especially since it is only one dimensional level below our own. When things occur here, they tend to transgress into our world in one form or the other. The Holy Sites have dimensional shields that are designed to allow some foreign objects through such as birds, water, oxygen and those things required to allow the sites to remain constant with their original earthly homes. These same shields will play havoc with our instruments, and are designed to keep object like this ship out. So stay vigilant and be ready for almost anything."_

* * *

Dante looked up from his desk at the tall dark-haired stranger with the piercing blue eyes and a scowl that would make men's spines quiver. He was holding out a simple business card and had a slight smile on his lips which seemed strangely out of place.

"O-overseer?" the communications rep asked from his seat. He took the card and looked it over.

"Amethyst," it read. "Phoenix Guild," was under it in gold letters.

"ThePhoenixGuild?" Dante yelped as he stood up with the card clenched to his face. "Yes! Yes sir! How may I help aPhoenix?"

The man shook his head. "No - no, you have me wrong," he said. "I am simply the advanced lead. I am the protector to thePhoenix."

Dante's eyes drew smaller. "A… a Celestial?" he asked with a near whimper in his voice. "W-what is a Celestial doing here in the Corporation building? You need clearance, don't you?"

The man shook his head again with a look of simple, yet arrogant denial on his face. "Not at all… I only need permission to visit the Seven Jewels," he explained as he straightened his business suit. "Now, may I see your director?"

Plato scowled at his copy of the business card. "Corporate overseers, ea?" he grumbled. "Why have the Phoenix Guild decided that this is now in their jurisdiction? We were expecting the Denivan, not you."

The man straightened himself in the office chair across from the director. "ThePhoenixfeels that this is a near breech of the Treaty of Set that was ratified by both sides nearly two thousand years ago," he replied smugly. "The Denivan may be able to moderate, but they are not the protector of the Treaty – the Guild is."

"Yet still," Plato snorted, "the Guild decided only to come in after the death of the Saint, and the announcement of moderators. Besides, I thought that the Guild said that the situation here was unique and that they would allow local management to handle it."

"And have you?" the man asked. "Your chief scientist is now within the Haibane… An angel and a demon are openly defying your own rules by being present at the same time in the Jewels… and a SAINT died… The two sides of this… squabble are nearly at blows, and as you pointed out, it required the bringing in of… heh… moderators."

Plato sat back but never took his eyes off the man. "It's still under our control," he said defiantly, "unless thePhoenixintends to step in, so to speak."

The man grinned and brushed his knee. "Not at all," he said. "Phoenixis only concerned about the upset that this has brought between the two sides. Order must be maintained. This circumstance was quite upsetting to them, especially since it seems that the basement was partly responsible for the loss of the Saint, since it was their powers that was used to shove him out of his prison… a rather forcible way to come out, wasn't it?"

"It was an even loss," Plato replied. "The basement lost the demon that came from Stryker as well. Both sides regret what happened. Besides, we don't know whether the demon that came out with Stryker was really responsible for his death."

Amethyst sat up. "Really? And where did you get this information?Phoenixhad not been told of this."

Plato smiled and leaned forwards with his hands crossed under his chin. "It does have its advantages to have someone on the inside," he said with a smirk.

* * *

Ptolemy sneezed.

"Bless you," Rakka said in an almost catatonic state. The loss of the Saint was playing hard on her. Was it going to bring a war to them? Could she have done something about it? Was there anything anybody could have done to prevent it?

"Blast it all…" she heard, popping her thoughts. She looked at the young man beside her and at the litany of papers he had strewn across the guest room table with notes and equations he had scribbled across them. "This doesn't make sense," he harrumphed. "By my calculations, Striker Aries should be alive and kicking right now – the closing of the shield should not have prevented his rising."

"Could something have drained his energy?" Nemu asked as she nibbled on a scone at the other end of the table.

Ptolemy rubbed the temporary reading glasses he had been given by Dr. McManus and shrugged. "Has to have been," he said. "Why else would it have taken all our energy and more to pull a perfectly normal archangel out of the demon form? He hadn't been corrupted from what I'm seeing in my readings. Even the demon should have simply repaired its wounds and stood up. Something else is involved here, and I need to find out what it is… ow…"

Rakka watched him grab his shoulder. "Are you all right Claudius?" she asked as she stood up.

He shook his head. "It's just a twinge… probably those wings they said I had." He then found her rubbing his shoulder blades. "Ohhh yea… that feels nice," he cooed.

"Oh, there you are, already in the arms of another woman I see," he heard. He looked up and saw his wife smirking at him from the doorway.

"Oh, hey honey," the boy said with a twinge of red streaking across his face. "What are you doing here? Aren't you close to your thirty hours?"

She laughed as she pulled a chair up and sat next to Nemu. "I have a few hours left," she said as she placed a small power pack on the table. "I thought you could use this, just in case."

"Ah, the cell phone charger - thanks," he said taking the small brick-like unit and plugging the dying battery-driven device into it. It was then he noticed how few receptacles there were around. The first two did not work. He finally found one in the bathroom in the lowly and dim fluorescent fixture over the sink that worked, but only just. The shape of the socket and the form of the plug made for an odd fit.

"Well, that might just work," he noted as he left the bathroom. But when he turned towards the others in the guestroom, he found them all looking out towards the balcony. "What? Did I miss something?"

"Umm… Sol just came in here with a boy Haibane that I've never seen before," Rakka answered him. "When we told them you were in the bathroom, they said that they'd wait out there for you."

"Sol?" he asked. He looked at the guest bed and saw the two wing-forms sitting there. He stepped over to the open doors and looked out. The two of them were sitting on the edge of the wall holding hands and simply looking out at the courtyard. He examined the boy and drew a big sigh.

He pinched his eyes and did a few small circles inside the doorway. "Oh great," he mumbled and stepped out. "Jester, what the hell are you doing here?" he asked the boy.

Janice was beside Ptolemy in an instant. "Jester? Where? I thought something was odd when I didn't see him in the services-way earlier!"

Sol sat in disbelief as the others looked around for the little green demon as Ptolemy stood staring at the boy. "How? How did you know?" she asked him.

The young-old man scoffed. "Sol dear, I know all my 'children'," he explained. "Besides, this is not a Haibane… the wings are too large, and the halo is tinged red!" He then stepped up to Jester and examined the ring over his head much closer.

"Jester… that isn't what I think that is, is it?" he whispered to him.

"Ahem…" the boy coughed and grinned. "It called me… use me it said… keep can I?"

He glanced up at the ring and shook his head. "I bet Reki's got an itch up there right now…"

What Reki had at that moment was twelve proto-angels diving down and teasing her while she swatted at them with a broom.

"ATCHOO!" she sneezed.

Ptolemy looked at the Haibane fromTripoliand smirked. "When did he arrive?" he asked.

Sol looked at the deck as she drew a circle with her toe. "Yesterday," she said. "He claims that Plato let him in."

Ptolemy slapped his hand over his eyes. "Left the gate open again, didn't he?" he noted mostly to himself. He looked up and saw the girl nod. "I knew it," he grumbled as he looked back at his wife. She was just standing with a look of disbelief on her face. The others looked simply confused trying to figure out just who the strange boy was.

"So what exactly are you doing here?" he asked the demon again.

"He wants to stay with me while I'm here in Glie," Sol explained for him as he simply nodded to what she was saying. "I told him that only you could give him that permission."

Ptolemy looked back at Janice. She was shaking her head.

"We haven't figured out just how we were going to get her back toTripoliyet," she said with some trepidation in her voice. She noticed the look on her young husband's face and knew that wasn't what he was looking for.

Ptolemy looked up at the sky above them and sighed. "Gabrella!" he yelled out. "I know you're watching this!"

"I always said that we needed representation here in the holy sites," she laughed as she appeared over them. "I have been watching, ever since they were frolicking about in the field yesterday afternoon. It was wonderful!" She batted her eyes in a mocking way. She looked down and saw the expression she was getting from the scientist and nearly broke out laughing. "What?" she asked.

Ptolemy walked over and took Jester by the arm and moved him a few feet away. He whispered something into his ear that no one could hear. Jester looked at him, looked away at a bird that flew by, then stared at his feet.

"Yes," he said.

Ptolemy rubbed his chin as he made another few short spinning turns on the deck. He then returned Jester to Sol's side and looked up at Gabrella, who was still floating over them.

"You know, I think I'm going to allow this," he said. "Jester has been a help already, even though he's partly responsible for my being here like this…"

The boy grimaced and looked over the edge of the balcony as if he needed a possible escape route in a hurry.

"Me sorry," he said quietly. "Me want Sol to with be."

"Does he talk that way normally?" Rakka asked.

"He fell on his head numerous times as an imp," his sister snorted as she lighted on the edge of the balcony with her clawed toes.

"Then again," Ptolemy said with a harrumph, "he is still illegally here… Let me think about it…" He turned and walked back into the guest room leaving everyone looking back at him.

* * *

"Absolutely not!" Dr. McManus said as she took his temperature.

"What do you mean?" Ptolemy asked while clutching the thermometer between his teeth as she took his blood pressure. "Jester is here without permission!"

The doctor, who had arrived shortly afterwards, scowled at him and pointed out the doorway to the two on the balcony. "Did you see her wings?" she asked. "You couldn't ask for better medication! When I looked at them yesterday, they were almost as bad as the day those wing forms were put on them. Now look at them! They're practically renewed!"

Ptolemy looked at the newly created feathers on the back of the girl fromTripoli. They were indeed a better sight than what was there just the day before. "So you're saying that his being here is good for her?"

"It's a rather obvious conclusion, isn't it?" the doctor noted. The scientist had to shrug and agree. "Now, as for you…"

Ptolemy looked at her. "What about me?" he asked.

She slipped the scanning rod back into its holder and sat back in her chair. "You're about two hours away from your thirty hour limit," she pointed out. "Given the amount of energy you spent on those wings yesterday…"

"I still don't remember having them," he said while shaking his head and running his hand through his full batch of youthful hair. He then was presented with a small scanner reader with a still playback of him with the appendages dangling on his back.

"You did look a little odd without the halo," McManus laughed. "But, those are the wings of a Haibane."

"Are they?" Ptolemy asked. "Look at them – they're huge… almost flight worthy. How the hell did I not feel those on my back?"

The doctor shrugged. "Post traumatic syndrome maybe?"

Ptolemy shook his head. "No, I've been examining my presence here as well. Even my cocoon is different. Look at this, it's still here," he said as he drew the box of fragmented parts out from under the table. "See? It should have dissolved by now, yet here it is as hard as… a rock?"

The shell suddenly crumbled in his hands as if it were a simple foam block. He looked up at her in near shock.

"I've spent my energy! I've got to get out, quickly!"

It was a mad scrambled dash out the door and down the path from Old Home.

"Doctor! Doctor!" Rakka yelled as she followed behind her as they ran up the road towards the center of town. "What is wrong?"

"We have to catch up to his wife…" the doctor said nearly out of breath as she continually ran her scanner over him. "…before he looses all his energy!"

Sol was on one of Ptolemy's arms, Rakka was on the other while Jester carried his legs. Claudius had gone from a slightly-panicked teenager to nearly limp in just a few moments after leaving the buildings behind them. The two Haibane and the Demon had to pick him up and were now jogging up the road towards town. The Doctor was beside them taking readings and injecting Ptolemy with stimulants.

"Where did she go?" Rakka asked as she nearly tripped while looking for Janice.

McManus looked at her reader as she brought up the entry point The Corporation officer had used. "Door two seven nine – the back of the bakery!"

"Hikari should be there," Rakka said as they stopped for a moment to catch their breaths. She looked at the boy that they were carrying and saw an odd sight. He looked older, but in a more diminished way – as if the life energy was being sucked out of him.

"Pops, what is happening to you?" she asked him as they lifted him up again.

"I told you before," he wheezed. "I'm not allowed in Glie for very long… it's the reason why I can't come through the gate. I have a time-limit on how long I can be here… otherwise I simply shrivel up."

"But you came out of a cocoon!" Sol cried. "How can you have a limit still?"

He shook his head. "This is god's reminder that I still have a job to do – it's not finished," he coughed.

"We've got to get him to that doorway," McManus said. "It's the only one open at this time!"

"Only one?" Rakka asked as they made a lopsided turn towards the town proper. "Why only one?"

"Security of course," a voice from over top them said. It was Gabrella as she appeared once again from above. She then lighted on the ground nearby with a stern look on her face. "To keep those unwanted in here out."

"I'm not here to quibble, Madam Secretary," the doctor interjected, "but you do know that isn't the whole truth."

"It still serves that purpose," the demon snorted as she stepped up to the trio carrying Ptolemy. "You'll never get there in time… I will take him."

Before anyone could say anything to the contrary, she had gathered his body up in her arms and was stroking the air hard with her wings heading for town.

Janice stared at the large open door to the walk-in starting oven. Why did they have to choose this portal that day?

"It's not really an oven," Hikari explained with a slight bow. "It's just the room we let the fresh loaves rise in, and it gets a bit warm because of it."

"Would you mind going through already?" one of the bakers quipped at Janice. "I need to transfer my stock to the main ovens!"

She blinked and replied, "Oh, yes… I'm sorry…" as she awoke from her momentary stupor. She took a step towards the swirling green portal that was temporarily in the oven's doorway.

"Hold on that!" she heard and felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned to find Katherine there.

"Oh, hello!" she said with a start. "Hold? Why? What's wrong?"

The goddess pointed behind them out the doorway. The backlit silhouette of her rival and Ptolemy stood there waiting room to enter, which quickly came when the bakers saw who it was.

"You must take him with you," Katherine told Janice as Gabrella looked at the emerald opening to the transfer portal. "His time here in Glie is over for now."

Janice looked at her husband in the arms of the Demon-Goddess. He was indeed showing advanced signs of age decay, the process they would go through if they did stay too long in one of the Holy Sites. She looked back at the doorway and gasped.

"I need to carry him through to the other side of that?" she asked. When she turned back, she caught a nasty expression from Gabrella.

"For a supposed greater being, you sure are chicken," she remarked as she stepped up to the doorway. She then gave what sounded like a bird-call into the green atmosphere. An imp appeared from the mist to her cry.

"Gather your comrades," Gabrella told it. "Assist in carrying Ptolemy home. I expect NO problems, understand?"

The imp seemed to flinch when she pointed out that it was to give safe passage to the human side of the wall. It clapped its hands together and held them up. Then thousands of hands appeared in a trail that vanished into the distance. Gabrella placed Ptolemy's body on them and they started to pass him along.

The demon looked down on the human woman beside her. "Follow him," she said to her. "If there are any problems, let me know." With that she vanished, as did Katherine.

"Umm… did I miss something?" Hikari asked. "Isn't Mr. Ptolemy a Haibane now?"

Janice entered the void without answering her. As she did, the green zone faded and only unbaked bread remained, leaving only the confused bakers and Haibane behind.

* * *

"Koi… Jester… must tell Koi about Jester…"

_"Yes? Yes? Go on…"_

"Demon hunter… Koi is a demon hunter… he will attack Jester… could injure Sol… Must tell Koi…"

_"Indeed, you must… but will you?"_

"Must… Must… Must…"

There was a rustling of feathers, and then silence.

Ptolemy sat upright. He was now in an old familiar bed in a modern apartment. He looked around and saw all the items he and his wife had collected and displayed over the years… he was home.

He drew in a sigh and held it. An old rattle ran through him – one he hadn't heard for a few days. He looked at his hands and saw old fingers. He tossed his bed-sheets aside and stood before the mirror over the dresser.

His old face greeted him. It may even be a slight bit older in fact… he couldn't be sure. It could have been just the reaction of being in Glie for too long. The last few days now seemed only to be a blur to him now. He would need to check any replays he could find to refresh himself.

"Try this," he heard. He looked across the room and found a uniformed man sitting in the chair beside his tie rack. The man stood up and handed Ptolemy a small box with a series of disks that could be inserted into it to play back on a screen at its top.

Ptolemy took the device from the man. "Roy Strom… what are you doing here?" he asked him with a cockeyed smile and a hand out to shake his.

"We were called in for Observation duty," he said after greeting his old friend. He sat back down. Ptolemy did the same on the edge of his bed as he looked at a bit of the replay the player-device was showing.

"That's not what I meant," the old scientist said. "As a Denivan Supreme, you shouldn't be in the same timeline as your predecessor."

The Captain waved his concerns off. "It's not like we will short each other out," he stated. "And it's not like Gather Damon does much time-traveling."

Ptolemy switched the reader off and plunked it onto the bed. "Calling you in for simple observation seems unlikely, sir," he said as he straightened his pajama top. "What with the building tensions between the basement and the attic, I would say you were here for a bit more."

The Captain smirked. "You know that we only have observation duty," he said as he crossed his arms and legs. "Anything else at this time is covered by the Phoenix Guild."

"Oh cut the crap," the old man said as he mimicked the position the Captain sat in. "You and I both know about the differences between your observation duties with your Federation, and your other duty as leader of the Denivan. And you yourself have mentioned many times how you didn't like the wording of the Treaty of Set."

"Too many loopholes," the Captain nodded in agreement. "Even those in the Phoenix Guild have mentioned that it lacks in total coverage in key areas, and in most, simply says that the Guild Leader shall prevail in all judgments."

"As per the Treaty of Set, to which it is the Phoenix Guild that shall be the final enforcing body of said treaty and all judgments therein," Ptolemy pointed out as he recited a section of the document from memory. "Remember, I was there for the last amendment it went through."

"I've seen the recording,"Roynodded. "But it does allow for the Denivan to act as mediators, at least. Why did you all have to do it in Set's kitchen?"

"His brother insisted, as did the Guild Leader," Ptolemy reminisced while rubbing the back of his head. "Something about watching his knives…"

Roymade a laughing snort. "That didn't help Osiris in the long run – Set still butchered him, and the Guild Leader hardly batted a feather. It is one of the reasons why Gather is not a particular fan of the treaty, and neither am I. It puts the stewardship of its rules into some possible unwatchful hands."

"In your opinion," Ptolemy added.

Royshook his head. "In OUR opinion, yes," he agreed. "And as an Observer, I would very much like to know just what he sees in you?"

Ptolemy looked around. "Who does?" he asked in confusion.

"The Guild Leader,"Roystated.

"In me?" the old man asked. "What do you mean in me?"

"I mean, when I arrived, I found the Guild Leader sitting on your headboard," the Captain noted as he gestured to some small claw marks in the wood of the bed, "and he seemed to be in quite a psychic trance. When he saw that I was near he departed. He was rather snippy about it as well…"

Ptolemy examined the scratches left by bird claws on his bed's headboard. "What in blazes did he want?" he pondered. "I remember something about Koi… and Jester…"

Roynodded. "I'll see about getting a message to Katherine, since she seems to be the one jaunting back and forth between the attic and Glie the most."

"Umm… not to be rude or anything," the scientist coughed, "but are you allowed to even talk with her? The treaty…"

The captain glared at him. "The treaty be damned," he growled. "As leader of the Denivan, I have to report to her father anyway. If I happen to run into her along the way, then it will be just a simple happenstance."

"Happenstance?" Ptolemy almost laughed. "That will be interesting to explain to the Guild if they were to find out. You're not supposed to have any communications with either side's lower ranked officials. Bouncing into Katherine will be tricky, to say the least."

"She's also the new commandant of the Seventh Realm,"Roynoted. "As a leader of one of the military arms, I can communicate with her legally. Technically, it should just be about movements of her forces, and not a disclosure that a member of the other side is in the house." He stood up and gestured to the device he had handed the scientist. "Get a good look at that before heading back to work, but don't delay too much. Things aren't running quite as smoothly as they were before."

"You mean to tell me that they were working smoothly at all lately?" Ptolemy barked. He looked back and saw that the Captain was now gone.

"Blasted Roy Strom… you'll give me an ulcer someday," he grumbled as he turned the device back on. "As will those other officers of yours that will no doubt start showing up unannounced."

* * *

"Steady! Steady!" the pilot of the number Twelve ship called out to his fellow craft. "Watch those flares… watch it… watch it…"

"Sir, what is it with this shield?" his wingman complained.

"Damn if I know," the gravelly voiced flight leader grumbled as he watched six of the dozen satellites they had laid out burn from the slightest touch of the energy wall that surrounded the protected 'Holy Sites'. "It certainly doesn't follow normal energy output procedures."

"Well I'll tell you, it does remind me of one thing," another voice said over his com.

"What's that B-A?" he asked the young lady pilot off his port side.

"Remember when we were mapping solar flares on Deneb Proxima?" she pointed out.

"Yea, but at least with those, you could see them coming!" Kinza noted just as another satellite was swiped by a band of energy that extruded itself from the shield. This time though, unlike the others which simply fizzled, this one blew up.

"Scragg!" he grumbled as he held his ship's position through the buffeting he was taking.

Rakka looked up. There had been a flash of light in the sky as she trudged home from theTemple. Cleanup there had taken the place of scrubbing tags the last few days. She didn't know which was worse – the damage repairs, or the living conditions of some of the Toga.

"What is that?" she asked of the glow from the northeast that was casting a new shadow before her. "Lightning?" It was hot and humid, and evening thunderstorms had been occurring lately, but this light was not vanishing like a static bolt's burst normally would – besides, there wasn't enough clouds for a storm.

She looked over her shoulder and found it - A wavering spot high over the wall shone brightly in the dusk sky. To prove that it wasn't a natural occurrence, it flashed a second time, though this time it seemed to break up into many smaller glowing sections, until they all finally vanished.

She stood for a moment to see if anything else would happen in the twilight sky. To her surprise, it wasn't something she saw, but heard. A thump rattled around her. It wasn't loud, and unless you were standing around heightening your senses for something else, you would have probably missed it, but there was definitely a sound attributed to the flash that had finally made it to Rakka's position, and it startled her. It was as if someone had taken heavy boxes and dropped them to the ground some distance away.

"Something blew up," she told herself as a second thump rolled by. She assumed that it belonged to the second flash she had seen. But now the sky only showed the deep red azure of the muggy evening of a midsummer. If she didn't press on, it would be fully dark by the time she got back to Old Home.

"Need someone to walk with you?" she heard as she approached the curve in the path off theRenmei Roadnear the Hill of Winds. She saw Koi jogging down the path from the southern end of town towards her. He was returning from his job at the newspaper. She gave him a weary smile as he joined up with her.

"Wild few days we've had, haven't we?" he asked as they started down the southern road.

"Uh huh," she said as she watched her feet shuffle along. "Almost sensory overload…" She stopped and looked at the boy beside her. "Now where do you suppose that came from?" she asked about the phrase she had just uttered.

Koi scratched the back of his head and laughed. "Almost sounded like something old man Ptolemy would have said," he chuckled as they continued on. "I hope he's okay."

She glanced at him. "You heard then?" she asked him. "About Mr. Ptolemy going back home?"

He nodded. "I saw Hikari at lunch time," he explained. "Drat… I had wanted to interview him for the next week's edition…"

"Always the reporter!" Rakka kidded him. "Well maybe you can do it when he comes back."

Koi shrugged. "You mean _if_ he comes back… at least while we are here," he corrected her. "I was told by my editor that Mr. Ptolemy is a Corporation leader – he's not really supposed to be here quite as often as he has been, or at least as often as of late that is…"

"You mean because of his thirty hour limit and all?" she conjectured.

"Partly," Koi said with another shrug. "Do you know it was nearly ten years since the last time he was here last?"

"Oh, that," she noted finally getting what he was referring to. "You mean, it's just not normal that he's here so often… even if it was because he arrived by cocoon this time…"

He nearly laughed. "That's just the latest. He's been in Glie at least three or four time in the last few months. The last time that happened was nearly a decade ago during the Haibane Molestation Trial where he acted as chief investigator."

Rakka glared at him in shock. "Molestation?" she asked. "What do you mean? How did you find that out?"

Koi gestured back the way they had come. "There's a room back at the paper called a morgue, where they store all the back-issues. I read about it… it's open to the public, with permission of the editor that is…"

"So what happened?" Rakka asked, now interested in the gossip she was hearing.

Koi smirked at her reaction. "Well, it seems that one of our Haibane from Old Home was being molested by her employer. He was brought to trial under direct order of The Corporation, as he had broken their directive about the treatment of the Haibane."

"The Corporation? Not the Haibane-Renmei?" Rakka asked.

"No," Koi answered her almost sternly. "It was one of the questions I wanted to ask him."

"So you're telling me that the people here not only have the Renmei to follow, but The Corporation as well?" Rakka scratched her head as she tried to figure that all out.

"Actually, the Corporation rules supersede the Renmei rules, or in most cases, the Renmei rulesAREthe Corporation rules." Koi shook his head. "When I saw that, all that kept running through my mind was something called 'Big Brother' for some reason, and I can't figure out why."

Rakka looked up into the darkening skies and at the first few stars that were appearing. "Like a big brother watching over us?" she whimsically said. "That sounds nice."

Koi grunted. "Somehow that wasn't the feeling I got when that phrase came to me… For some reason I feel I read that somewhere, and it wasn't warm and cuddly…"

"I wonder if that flash of light I saw earlier was something to do with them?" Rakka pondered as she looked back behind them.

"Flash of light?" Koi asked. As he did, the side of his face was illuminated by a glow from over the northern wall.

"There's another one!" Rakka exclaimed.

"Mr. Kinza, we're loosing the third set here, and theTripolisatellites are starting to take a beating!" the wingman called out as his ship was buffeted again.

He frantically ran his furry fingers over the controls of his ship. "B-A, take over here – get the remaining satellites to a higher orbit," Kinza ordered. "I'm heading for theTripoliseries to reset those… got it?"

"Yes sir!" was her smart reply as he pulled his small ship up and over the rest of his wing as they worked on saving what was left of the scanning satellites.

"You guys don't pay me enough for this!" he grumbled.

"Oh, you mean we pay you at all?" he heard from the starship above them. He smirked and flew on.

"Not like I'm looking for an advance or anything," he commented, "but have you guys figured out just why these shields are flaring like this?"

A static crackle rattled over the speakers as the energy rose again for a moment. "We think it has something to do with the approach of souls," was the reply. "The Corporation calls it an Apogee Report, and they causes the highest eruptions it seems… or at least we think that's what's happening. One way or the other, we need to get these sats stabilized so we can get our frequency readings."

"Oh, such confidence!" Kinza barbed. His ship jumped over a surge as the power of his own ship's shields reflected off the field below it. He adjusted his approach and came overtop theTripolisatellites as they clanked together like bells. The energy currents had gathered them together.

"Uh, this isn't good," he mumbled to himself. Satellites that were designed to work independent of each other in a nearly technological anti-social way were being slammed together like basketballs in a bucket by the eddies and flows created by the energy field that had come up and snagged them. It wasn't going to be long before one or more power-packs breached and blew the mess sky-high.

"TheTripolimains are all shot," he reported as he launched a cable-snare and caught one of the outer units and started hauling it out of the pack. "I'm starting to pull some away to minimize any detonations…"

"You be careful there with my Scat-Back, Mr. Kinza," the Commander kidded him. "Those satellites are ready to blow and I just had her repainted!"

Kinza snorted over the joke. "Mr. Button, I will not scratch your precious paint job!" he barked back. "I've done this work before – the trick is to get as many away as quickly and gently as possible…"

"SIR!" the helmsman on thebridgeofForrestalyelled. "Incoming fire!"

The smile left the Commander's face as he looked up from his conversation with his friend in his personal Scat-Back and peered over the edge of the Captain's Loft to the Command Deck below. "Fire? Where? Who's firing on us?" he asked.

"No, Mr. Button… Fire!" the helmsman corrected him. "There's a spreading wall of fire coming around theTripolishield, sir!"

The Commander spun a scanner screen about and brought up the reported mass of flames. It indeed seemed to be heading for the Scat-Back. "Where the hell did that come from?"

"I don't know," Kinza replied as he too read the report and pulled up the scans. "It looks like its coming from the area of the lower satellite groups down there, but they're all still there – I've got telemetry coming in from all of them." He fired off another cable snare from his service bay and caught another damaged orb. "It doesn't look like its advancing fast though… I should be able to get at least two more out of here before it gets here."

"Monitor him, Mr. Tolefson," the Commander ordered.

The young man darted across his controls. "It's difficult, sir," he reported. "The fire isn't advancing evenly… it bursts about a lot."

The Commander looked down on the two recruits working in his Science Station. "Get me the readings from the satellites where this fire started from, stat!" he ordered.

The Scat-Back now had four orbs hanging below it in tandem, looking like bent up pearls on a string. It left three more to be gathered or abandoned if the flames got too close.

"I've got my first load – backing away," Kinza reported as he pulled up on his control yolk. He watched the wall of fire advance slowly towards his position. "Best I get out of here with these… Hope three blowing up won't do any harm…"

"We had three blow already overLucerne," the starship replied to his comment. "The shield hardly noticed it."

"Okay, then why am I collecting these?" Kinza asked jokingly.

No one had a chance to answer him. A bolt of fire shot away from the main conflagration and struck the core of the three remaining satellites. All three burst like balloons pricked by a red hot needle and added their own flames to the swelling explosion.

"Belkar's beard!" Kinza barked as he yanked hard at his flight stick and maximized out his underbelly engines. The ship rose safely away from the firestorm with the four orbs he had snared dangling below it.

But then, the fiery bolt seemed to see the missing four satellites and leapt for the first one it could reach.

"Oh, SCRAGG!" Kinza yelped as the first one blew under him and smashed a shockwave through his own shields. Then a second, a third, and a forth tore the bottom out of the Scat-Back and hurtled it away.

"KINZA! KINZA, REPORT!" the Commander shouted into the com unit. All he could see on his monitor was a ball of flames where the Scat-Back had once been. Then his own ship shook from the shockwave of the explosions.

"Scragg, that'll leave a mark," he then heard.

Out of the fire shot the Scat-Back, its engines seemingly pressing hard to escape the cataclysm behind it. But to the trained eye of the Commander, he knew that wasn't a normal flight pattern it was doing.

"Kinza, can you cut back on your thrusters?" he asked.

The pilot was busy avoiding sparking instruments and bursting panels. "I'm trying!" he shouted as the ship now seemed to have a mind of its own. It whirled and darted about as if no one was holding onto the flight yolk. As it was, Kinza had it tight in his paw and was attempting everything he knew to get her back under control.

"Scat-Back Twelve will be into theTripolishield in twenty seconds!" the helmsman reported.

"Kinza… not to put much pressure on you…" Button told him.

He looked out his scorched canopy's window. "Well, we wanted to know what would happen if we took one of these right through the field," he yelled. "Someone get me a frequency to that shield, QUICK! All I need is close, not accurate!"

Button moved over his scanner readings as fast as he could. Little data had been received from the probes before the wild gyrations in the Holy Site's shields had started. But he managed to find a little information.

"Tentwo fifty!" he shouted into the microphone, hoping his friend had heard that.

Slamming into bricks would have felt less harsh than the electro-jolt he took coming through theTripolishields with his own shields only moderately near to their frequency. 'Rule Number One' flashed through his mind, 'of entering an energy field with deflectors up of your own – always match your frequency to that of the surrounding field you are attempting to enter.' He was as close as a rapid scan-reading could have given him, which was no where near perfect. If he had a better match to it, the energy would have possibly only scorched the outside of his ship. As it was, more inner circuits were now bursting and shrill-fully frying throughout the Scat-Back.

The Market Fair inTripolistopped for a moment to look up. The townsfolk, the Haibane, even the Toga, alerted by a loud explosion overhead, all watched as a fiery ball crossed the sky as it headed south. Some noted that it hadn't come over the wall - that it had simply appeared over the skies of the desert town with the thunderous roar that scared animals and babies.

To the pilot, the only advantage found by punching through the energy shield was that it had restored some of his flight controls, if not bounced him around his cabin a bit. He cursed and swore to himself in his native tongue as he struggled to get his crippled ship to respond. He was going to attempt an emergency landing, but found that the far end of the shield was approaching much too fast.

"Ooh, scragg! I hope this thing can take that without its own shields!" he gritted as he careened into it.

The jolt itself was survivable, but not for any remaining circuits running aboard ship. The craft was in a slow tumble, and it wouldn't be long until he would hit the outer shield of the next Jewel in line - the Glie barrier.

"Gotta eject my core before going in there," he grunted as he reached down below his chair. "Can't let this blow while I'm in there…"

"He's come out the far side sir!" Tolefson reported as he pointed at the scanner array that was tracking a metallic object between the shields.

"Transmats?" the Commander asked knowing the response.

"No way sir!" a science station Ensign yelped. "We'd never get a lock in all that interference!"

"BING-BONG!" all the speakers on the bridge suddenly harmonized. "This is the automatic-safety system! Ship's computer – S.A.M. System One - reports arming of a pseudo-matter power pod's launch controls… risk of detonation… risk of detonation!"

Mr. Button grimaced as he removed his hands from the sides of his face. "Blasted auto-safety," he grumbled. "Who turned THAT thing back on?"

Kinza looked up from his crouched position and watched the rotation of the ship. He wanted to fire the pod off while facing away from either shield. He waited a moment then pulled hard on a lanyard that was between his legs. Five pins on the back of his ship burst and a cylinder-like pod shot away with a whoosh. All remaining power in the Scat-Back shut down, as the batteries had fried when they had first gone through the shields earlier.

"Kinza!" B-A called out from her Scat-Back as she saw the crippled ship below hers. Its power-core shot by her as its retro-rockets thrust it away. She spun her own Scat-Back about and dove after her flight-leader's craft.

"Beth Ann Hanover, don't you even think it!" she then heard over the crackle of her com unit. "We don't need two of us in trouble… stabilize that power pod I just launched… that's an order!"

There was little she or the others could do. He was too far below them to be rescued without possibly dragging another ship into the shields as well. She watched as the damaged Scat-Back got smaller and…

"Incoming fire!" barked across the communication system again. B-A looked back and saw a streamer of flames arcing over the top of theTripolishield.

"BING-BONG! This is the automatic-safety system! An energy burst is heading for the pseudo-matter pod launched from Scat-Back Twelve… contact in ten… nine… eight…"

"ALLSHIPS SCATTER!" Mr. Button yelled. "RAISE SHIELDS – BRING US UP TWO SEVEN FOUR SEVEN MARK THRITEEN!SHOWTHE POD OURBOW, MR. TOLEFSON!"

"ALLHANDS, PREPARE FOR EXPLOSIVE SHOCKWAVE!" the helm replied. "ALLENGINES REVERSE,BOWDOWN FIFTY DEGREES, SHIELDS DOUBLE FRONT!"

Rakka and Koi spun about as the dusk vanished. To the north a sun had appeared, illuminating everything in a strange light as if it was suddenly mid morning. The odd place that it had come from gave an eerie image to things – shadows appeared on sides of objects that rarely had them, and things that never saw light were now illuminated brightly, like lichen and moss on the north sides of trees and buildings. They shimmered from the unexpected glow.

"That was the biggest one yet!" Rakka exclaimed.

Koi was cupping his eyes. "Biggest one? What do you mean?" he asked her.

This time, the ground shook with a violent thud. Nearby, a transformer on a power pole coming from the Hill of Winds generation station burst, sending out a shower of sparks and dropping the town center into dark. A number of the turbines whined and spat as a surge ran through them. Finally the light in the sky started to dim as all in the town peered out windows and doorways at the pulse of energy that had struck them.

"There were a few smaller ones like that earlier," Rakka explained as the twilight again returned to the Glie skies. "But this one seemed quite more violent…"

"Shh!" Koi hissed. "Listen! Do you hear that?"

Rakka stopped and turned. She could hear a whistling sound approaching. She looked up the road towards the north again and saw something hugging the tree line…JUSTOVERTOP the tree line…

"Scragg, I hate belly landings," Kinza growled as he found his manual landing gear release welded shut. He was working a dead stick on a craft that barely glided. Even with its short stubby wings, they were more for the placement of the engines than atmospheric flight. Without the underbelly thrusters, the Scat-Back was more a stone with arrow feathers – it would impinge quite nicely without proper handling of its controls. It did have small wing flaps and moving surfaces to assist in powered flight, but without thrust, they did little to keep it in the air.

"It's a good thing the belly's pretty flat in this thing," he grimaced as the ship got closer to the ground. "Of course, that's if I still HAVE a belly on this thing..." What little guidance he had he found was by physically moving himself in the cabin from side to side. He had found a relatively straight road to follow and was attempting a landing on it, when he saw two people coming up fast. He yanked hard on the stick, slammed himself into the seat's back, and shoved the floor pedals hard to the floor, which brought the nose up ever so slightly. He managed to skip over them barely. But with that movement, all lift was lost. The ship vanished over the rise of the hill, dropping like the rock it had become.

"What was that?" Koi and Rakka both asked aloud as they now could hear the nasty sounds of something metallic grinding along the road ahead. They began to run.

The Scat-Back was loosing parts fast as it pounded the dirt and gravel road. It didn't help much that this was really a path with a grassy mid-section meant for tractors and wagons. The nose of the craft kept digging into it as the pilot struggled with what he could, which was now extremely little. He was only along for the ride now. It finally dug in too far, and caused the craft to flip up into the air again and over the small rocky wall beside the road. It tumbled down into the farmer's field just north of Old Home.

"Wow! Something just wrecked BIG TIME!" Kana yelled from the clock tower. She had climbed up it to see why the power had gone out and to watch the lightshow that had lit up the skies a few minutes earlier.

"Where?" Hikari asked. "Rakka and Koi are still out there!"

Kana was now leaning out the window with her binoculars. "I see them! They're coming over the hill now. Wow, it looks like whatever that was nearly hit them!"

"What?" Hikari squeaked as she darted out through the entry tunnel and down the path down towards the road. Kana was quickly behind her with a flashlight.

Koi and Rakka stood on top of the wall looking down on the wreckage. There were no flames, but it seemed hot. Parts were strewn all over the corn field, but a large boxy section seemed still pretty much intact. Throughout all the tumbling, the canopy still held tight to the body of the craft.

"What is this thing?" Rakka asked as she watched Koi step down through the steaming wreckage.

"I don't know," he said then pointed at a large box-like structure that had torn off the left side of the craft. "Look, English!"

Rakka examined the bent port-side engine pod where the words 'United Nations' were written. She looked up at another unit like it that still hung over the top of the craft.

"Look, there's more," she pointed out. Koi stepped up to it and read it aloud.

"F2-662/12," he said. "Sounds like a serial number of sorts."

"Hey!" they then heard as they saw the flickering of Kana's flashlight approaching. "Are you two alright?"

"We're fine!" Rakka yelled back. "We almost got hit by whatever this thing is though!"

"Oh, Mr. McGreevy isn't going to be happy about this!" Kana said as she looked around at the strewn wreckage. "Look at what it did to his corn!" But she was shortly less concerned with the plants and was now collecting small parts.

Rakka touched the side of the craft. It was cooler now, and the closer she could get, the more she could read on the metallic sides… No Step… Push Here… Emergency Release… there was a handle beside that sign.

"Rakka, what are you…" Koi asked as she yanked the arm of the latch. There was the sound of something sneezing and a rush of air blew her hair and halo back. Then the cracked and battered canopy ejected off the front of the craft and smashed into more of Mr. McGreevy's corn.

Hikari, who was next to the front of the ship, and who had nearly received the canopy in the face, had the best view into the craft and gasped. "Oh my god, there's someone in there!"

Kana's flashlight bounded about and landed with her climbing the opposite site of the ship from Rakka. She shown the light into the cabin and both she and Rakka held their breaths.

"M-my god…" Kana gasped. "What is it?"

* * *

Smoke was pouring out of the control center as Janice and Virgil ran down the corridor. Hip's bag was outside the room and the door was being held open by fire hoses. Janice looked in and found the room charred, as if a jet flame had come through the floor and out the roof. The doctor was working on a body to the left of the control console. Mabel's cage was a twisted mess sitting on top of what used to be the main panels. Firefighters were hosing down small flare-points around the lever that directed which corridor to take into the Jewels. But what caught her attention especially was the man in an expensive suit gassing away on a cell phone.

"Yes sir," he said while parading back and forth over the fire hoses. "The Holy Sites control center is a total loss… yes sir… rupture of the main injector assembly… yes sir… two dead… no sir… incompetence? Possibly sir… they were rookies… from what I'm told the overnight staff usually are, sir… yes sir… oh, very good sir… yes sir… I look forward to your visit, sir… Thank you, sir." He slowly closed his phone and looked at the fiery stare he was getting from Janice.

"Who the hell are you, and what the hell do you mean INCOMPETENCE?" she shouted as her emotions swelled up her spine.

"This is the high and mighty Amethyst," Hypocrites sarcastically commented as he laid a covering over the body he was next to. "He's a Celestial here for the Phoenix Guild."

"Well I don't care if he's god himself!" she snapped as she got into his face. "Sabrina and Brock were not rookies, and they certainly were NOT INCOMPETANT! This would have only happened if it was a sudden breech… the journal tapes will tell us."

Amethyst reached into his jacket and pulled out a disk. "I've already seen them…" he smugly said as he twirled the metallic recording. "If they weren't rookies, then they were poorly trained on breech procedures. Either way, it will be interesting to see how this plays at the inquisition."

"How DARE YOU TAKE OUR RECORDS!" Janice screamed at him as she attempted to take the disk. But she then found herself unable to move.

"I will take what I please, Madam Coordinator," the Celestial sneered as he tapped the disk off her nose. "I am in charge of the protection of the Guild Leader, and I will determine what I deem needed to fulfill that duty. Huh?"

Amethyst found that someone had reached over his shoulder and taken the disk from his grasp. It was now being rapped off the back of his head. "You're out of bounds, son. Release her immediately."

He turned and found a uniformed officer standing behind him. He also now found him rapping the disk off his forehead.

"I guess you didn't hear me," the man now began to thunder. "RELEASE HERNOW!"

Amethyst smirked and gave a slight wave of his hand releasing Janice. "Captain Strom," he snidely remarked. "I had heard that you were floating about… you are severely out of time… err… am I using that right? I mean to say that you're not in your normal time stream."

"As an Observer, I may be wherever I please, Mr. Amethyst," the Captain made clear to him. "And as leader of the Denivan…"

"Ah ah," Amethyst said with a waving finger. "Not at this time… Unless dear old Gather Damon has decided to abdicate his throne."

"Hardly," Strom smirked. "And he's definitely not a senile old bird like your Guild Leader. He's what… almost five hundred years overdue with his regeneration?"

Amethyst straightened his tie and coughed/cleared his throat as Strom handed the disk over to Janice. "He's only deferring it until the crisis is over with."

Strom nearly burst out laughing. "Crisis? Which crisis? The first one that I remember he considered a crisis was The Great Hangnail of his seven hundredth thirty second year! It is not healthy for aPhoenixto not regenerate! Don't forget we Denivan Supremes know a thing or two about firebirds."

"Ah, that's right," Hip said as he stood up from his work. "The Sorcerer Supremes… the heart of the Denivan hierarchy… you all have a transformational creature that you use to bring out your full powers, am I right?"

"Our Changelings, yes," Strom nodded as he kept his eyes locked on the Celestial, "which of course, makes us an ever so slightly stronger force than the members of the Phoenix Guild."

"And you wonder why the Treaty of Set bans your group from interfering with the Guild's handling of the relations between heaven and hell," Amethyst smirked. "You can't even guarantee that any of the sixteen members of your core leadership won't turn out, how should I say, warped? You actually have a member of your inner council who worships the devil!"

"It's not like we had any choice in the matter," Strom grumbled. "Nature takes its course on these things – besides, it's not like the Guild hasn't had it's fill of 'bad' types."

Janice and Virgil stared at the officer. Hip lit a cigarette and laughed to himself. "How is old Bartok anyway?" the doctor tossed into the debate. The Captain smiled.

"Placated and inert," he replied. "He may be officially a council member, but he's ranked sixteenth out of sixteen so his powers are relatively low, and his lifetime house arrest keeps him under constant observation…"

"Unless he manages to ditch them… again," Amethyst ground in.

Strom smiled. "That's what makes him fun to deal with!" he snidely retorted. "Besides, how are we supposed to know about the ambivalence of the current Guild and its members? We don't hide our flaws… do you?"

Amethyst looked as if he couldn't answer that. He only straightened out his jacket and spun about on his heels. "Ask him when he gets here then," was his reply.

"Oh, I intend to," the Captain retorted with his arms crossed. "And I intend to ask him why one of his Guild just attacked my ship and my crew, resulting in the deaths of two Corporation employees and the possible loss of one of mine."

Amethyst glared back at him. "What are you saying? You think the Guild is responsible for this?"

Strom stepped up to him and poked him on the shoulder. "You can't hide firebird things from another firebird…" the Captain growled. "And I know a guided trajectory when I see one. That fireball knew just where to strike!" He then snapped his fingers. The room switched from a burned out shell to a sparkling clean white room with all controls restored. The bodies were still on the floor though.

"I can restore this room… let's see your Guild Leader restore their lives." Strom then walked around him and stood in the hallway. He turned and gestured to his left. "You may now leave this building," he ordered.

"Pardon me?" Amethyst asked. "I'm in the middle of overseeing this…"

"YOU were out of line, sir," the Captain stated. "You crossed that line when you removed one of MY scanning disks, and when you held Janice Ptolemy in near-stasis. I have invited you to leave the building… don't make me REMOVE you."

Amethyst's eyes were blood red as he straightened his tie and brushed his jacket. "Denivan scum…" he mumbled as he slinked out the doorway and down the hall. He knew the Captain probably could back his threat up if necessary. "This isn't finished, just you wait!"

"I'll put my Battle Phoenix up against anything YOUR Guild Leader could dish out any day!" Strom laughed as he watched the man depart. He then nodded to The Corporation personnel and followed.

"What the hell was all that about?" Virgil finally asked aloud.

* * *

_"Kinza… Kinza, wake up! Elb Kinza Farley, get out of bed! Your ship is arriving soon!"_

_"Koni? Koni, what are you doing here? Where's my brother?"_

_"Hee hee… back at the palace, silly! Tending to your father as usual… the old codger is fishing in the moat again!"_

_"Chasing political sharks is he?"_

_"Personally, I think it's more like just drowning. He still sinks like a brick."_

_"Heh… what's he think he'll catch? Angel fish?"_

_"They just fly away when you get close… and they're so fragile that they shouldn't be caught – they should be protected."_

"What is it? I've never seen anything like him…"

"Are you sure it's a he?"

"Trust me, it's a he… I saw when we removed his…"

"OH! Don't tell me that!"

"He looks so cuddly… like a giant teddy bear… or cat… something… his fur is so soft…"

"Did you see those teeth? I wouldn't call those cuddly!"

_"Koni? Koni, why are these angels here in the palace, and why am I missing my clothes?"_

_"The doctors needed to check your Slyznics… are you sure you have to go?"_

_"Its terminal, you know that… they say that the remission is because I won't be in this universe… odd how it still itches from time to time…"_

_"This is your baptism Mr. Kinza… take the controls and bring us out of this."_

_"Don't just throw me to the wind, you old scraggart! I've been here before!"_

_"What's your name son?"_

_"Damn this itch…"_

_"That's a strange name…"_

"CAWW! CAWW!"

_"Will someone shut that bloody bird up?"_

_"What's your name son?"_

"CAWWW!"

_"Can I quote you on that?"_

"CAWW!"

_"Bird, you bother me…"_

"SKIAWWWW!"

_"__Phoenix__!"_

The ceiling blurred about. It wasn't dirty, but it obviously had not been painted in quite a while. Something was banging some distance away, as if someone was building somewhere near, but it still managed to pound a bit in his head.

"Who is that guy with Sol?" he heard. "There's something about him that's disturbing…"

He rocked his head slightly to the right. A boy and a girl were seated at a table eating a roll or muffin… he couldn't tell. Maybe it was a doughnut… no, that was what was over their heads…

"His name is Jester," the girl said. "He's the demon that came with her down the river."

"You know, with all that's happened lately, those secrets we promised to keep about the river slues seemed to have been blown wide open," another person said entering the room. "I mean, just listening to the chattering in town you hear folks yammering about the 'strange Haibane' down at Old Home."

_Huh… that one's got a doughnut too…_

"I think we're garnering a reputation here," the boy said. Just then he heard the sound of an electric saw whir as the hammering continued – his head throbbed. "Didn't she say that Jester was a small demon? That was a male Haibane I saw with her."

_Damn strange doughnuts… they glow…_

"He seemed to have changed his shape," the girl across from him said. "I think he's taken by Sol…"

_What are they wearing on their backs? Wings?_

"You're kidding… Are you sure that's a wise thing?" the boy asked. "I get this strange feeling each time I see him…"

"Claudius said he'd allow it, for the time being that is," the first girl said.

"CAWWW!"

_What the scragg is with that bird over my head?_

"Mabel! I thought I said I'd allow you in here only if you'd… oh… sorry, you're awake…"

"Did you say he's awake, Kana?" another person yelped from the other room as the drapes flew open and a blond girl with glasses darted in. "Ohhh! Look at him! He's looking at me!"

"And that's a bad thing?" Kinza asked with a groggy raspy voice. "Oooh, my head…"

"He speaks!" Kana gasped.

"Umm, the controls were all in English, as were the markings on the outside of that ship of his," the boy noted. "I'd think he'd know to speak."

"Smart lad… give him a goodie point," Kinza snorted. It was then that he noticed that he was bare-chested. "Okay… where is my uniform?" he asked.

The blond girl suddenly looked shyly to her side towards the room she had entered from. "Umm, we were trying to clean it," she said as she blushed. "It kind of dissolved when we tried to wash it… all that was left was the patch on your chest."

He rolled his head back. "Ah, yes… the com unit… well at least I'll be able to report in… if I WANT to after trashing my ship…" He looked down at his feet, which were also out of their shoes. He wiggled his toes. "And at least I understand you… don't need the translator…" he added as he dropped back and nearly fell asleep again from that simple exertion.

"What are you?" the blond girl asked as she stepped up to the side of the guest bed he was in. "I never imagined a creature like you before…"

Kinza woke up a bit more with that. "Creature?" he asked a bit curtly as he saw the girl cover her mouth in shock. "Ah," he noted with a bit more calmness in his tone, "blurted that out, did you doughnut head?"

The boy and the girl at the table both snickered loudly at the reference to the blonde's halo.

Kinza looked up at the ceiling as the world spun a bit. "Well, I'll answer your questions if you'll do me the service and tell me where I am?"

"You're in Old Home," the girl at the table spoke up. "You're in Glie… we are Haibane who found you after your… thing… crashed nearby."

Kinza slowly nodded. "Well… I guess you don't get Tomassamassas in here often then…"

"Tomassamassa?" Hikari asked as she gently leaned over the side of the bed and ran her hand over his furry head and instinctively started to scratch him behind his large round bear-like ears. He seemed not to mind it – as a matter of fact, he seemed to start enjoying it.

"Mmm… that feels good…" he grumbled in a cat-like purr. "Wait a minute… did you say Haibane? I'm in a holy sector?"

"Holy sector?" Kana coughed.

"Uh huh," the girl at the table answered him. "That's Hikari," she noted as she pointed towards the girl scratching him. "That's Kana, he's Koi and I'm Rakka…"

"Ah," he nodded as he closed his eyes and grimaced. "Pleased to meet you… though I'm pretty sure I wasn't supposed to… My name is Elb Kinza Farley…"

"Elb?" Hikari smile. "That's an interesting name."

He grinned and shook his head, which started the room swaying. "Naa… that's my rank… you can call me Kinza…"

"And I'm Doctor McManus," a woman said as she entered the room. "You can call me Doctor."

Kinza snickered. "Hey Doc," he laughed. "I guess I chose the right sector to crash in, ea?"

The woman shook her head as she dropped her bag at the foot of the bed. "You've been a naughty boy, Mr. Kinza…" she said in a nearly exasperated tone. "From what I saw of Mr. Button's Scat-Back, you're also a very lucky one."

"Bad, ea?" he moaned as she pulled a scanning rod out and began using it over his body.

"A pretzel has fewer twists," she commented. "And we're stuck here to because of it."

He raised his head, which only made the room spin more. "Stuck? Why for?" he asked as he painfully dropped it back down onto Hikari's hand.

"When your power core blew, it ionized the shields," the doctor said as she started in on a nasty lump on his forehead. "You've got a concussion here… flying without your helmet again, ea?"

"The manual doesn't say anything about wearing helmets," he said in a near drunken stupor as the doctor placed a device on his forehead that was blinking. "Besides, my ears don't fit in those buckets made for you humans… no offence, mind you…"

"None taken, I think," Hikari said with a puzzled look. Rakka nearly giggled.

"So, a Tomm… Tomassamassa you said?" Kana asked as Koi pulled a pad of paper out. "Just what is a Tomassamassa?"

"Felis Bera Capra!" he shouted, making them jump, save the doctor, who simply shook her head. He then looked down at his toes.

"You said you had the patch from my shirt?" he asked the girl cradling his head.

Hikari looked about. "Umm… yes… it's in the kitchen…" she sheepishly said.

"Could you get it for me?" he wearily asked. "If I'm allowed to answer your questions, it will tell me."

"Umm, sure," she said as she darted into the other room.

The doctor looked at her patient skeptically. "Are you sure? With the ionization… you think you'd get a signal?"

Kinza gave a painful laugh. "What? The omnipresent S.A.M. System letting a minor thing like an over zapped force field stop his scrutiny of our every move? I think not! …ow…"

Hikari returned with the patch – it was a stylized galaxy logo in blue and gold with a few tattered remains of his tan uniform's fabric dangling from it.

"I still can't figure out why it dissolved like that," she pondered as she handed it to him.

"There's a reason why the label says 'T-Mat Clean Only,' kiddo!" he said as he laid it on his chest and tapped on the center of the galaxy.

"S.A.M. System active," it replied.

"Told ya," he smugly said to the doctor. "Okay, shoot…" he then said laying his head back into the pillow to allow the room to stop rotating around his world.

"Felis Bera whatsis?" Koi asked tapping his pad while trying to figure out what it had been the strange furry man had blurted out earlier.

Kinza burst out laughing, which changed to hurtful moaning. "Ooh… that smarts," he grumbled to himself. "When I joined this crew I'm with, a human in charge of some sort of categorizing life forms decided to give my race that moniker… Latin I believe she called it… Supposedly it means beard of a goat, ears of a bear and face of a cat… But, still a Tomassamassa by any other name should smell so sweet! – Shakeyweird…"

"So what the heck is a Tomassamassa?" Kana interjected. She stood back at the semi-glare she got from Kinza.

"What the heck is a Haibane?" he shot back. "Tomassamassas are another race of beings, that's all. There are more than just humans you know."

"BING!" the patch chimed.

"Whoops! I've been naughty!" he smirked. "S.A.M., explain to me just how knowing that there are more life forms that humans and Haibane in this universe is going to effect them?"

"It is knowledge that they are not supposed to know," the patch replied.

"BUT I'M LAYING HERE RIGHT IN FRONT OF THEM!" he shouted back then regretted every syllable of it as his head pounded.

"Ah… that is correct… I stand adjusted to this fact now…" it chirped.

"Stupid computer… Always jumping in before thinking…" he growled as he rubbed his throbbing temple. He settled further when Hikari took over for him. "Ahhh… what an angel," he sighed. He looked over at all the eyes staring at him and grunted. "Waiting for a story, aren't ya?" he asked.

A bunch of the chairs moved from the table to around the bed. Doctor McManus shook her head and continued working on her patient as the Haibane gathered, now with one more.

"You put him in my bed?" Sol asked as she entered the room out of breath.

"We were going to put him in the boy's dorms," Rakka noted, "but there was just too much noise up there right now… and we needed to keep an eye on him overnight…"

"Besides," Koi added, "where were you last night anyway?"

All eyes turned towards the visiting Haibane as she turned scarlet.

"Hey-hey, don't jump all over her…" they heard. They all looked back at Kinza and found him shaking his head. "Where she was and who she was with is not our business, now is it?"

A few murmured slightly. "I guess not," Kana said.

"You mean just because her boyfriend is a filthy demon?" Koi voiced in a less-than-sympathetic tone. Sol stepped back in shock over the way he had said it, and Rakka sat dumbfounded as well.

"Koi! Apologize!" she demanded. She then noticed the amazed expression on the boy's face – a realization of what had just blurted out of himself.

"Did… did I just say that?" he asked with an almost pained look on his face. He looked up at Sol and saw the tears streaming down her face. "Sol… Sol, I'm sorry…"

"Damn straight you should apologize," Kinza said with a bit tipsy tone to himself. "The Demon Guild wouldn't be happy to hear you call them that!"

"Happy more Guild here not now!" a boy behind Sol said as he too entered the room. "Sister show her face bad enough!"

Kinza waved to McManus to come closer. "And this would be…" he asked.

"Gabrella's brother," she answered.

Kinza made a motion of his two paws to indicate something rather small. "Little Greenie?" he asked. He looked back over at the boy after the Doctor nodded a yes. "Jester, you've grown!" he then cracked.

"Ah, Mr. Farley, indeed!" Jester said while blushing and scratching the back of his head. "I grow Sol for as say you eye to eye."

Kinza pinched his face while trying to decipher that last line. "You grew to look her in the eyes, ea?" he groused. "That makes sense."

"Mr. Farley," McManus snickered.

"Abby…" the Tomassamassa growled, a bit more alert and angered now. Hikari nearly jumped back as he flashed a row of teeth that looked a bit vicious. "I've asked Jester more than a few times NOT to call me by my family's honored warrior name…" A squeak by Sol made everyone look at her, only to see that she had Jester crouching behind her on his knees bowing towards the bedridden officer.

"Sorry - sorry I sorry so am, please!" he begged.

Kinza scowled at him, then crossed his eyes and fell back on his pillow again. "Doc, would you use that wound healer already?" he complained.

She shook her head. "It's not working because of the ionization," she noted. "You're just going to have to mend au natural."

"Swell," he grunted. He looked at all the faces looking back at him and coughed. "Okay… what's your question?"

"What's a Tomassamassa?"

"Why did your shirt dissolve?"

"Honored Warrior Name?"

"What was that thing you were in and why are you here?"

"What is Sam and where does he come from?"

"Demon Guild?"

"How do you know Jester?"

Kinza rolled his eyes and looked up at the Doctor. "Knock me out, please?" he asked her.

"That is not a bad idea, though I would actually want to keep you under observation," she said as she looked over her readouts of her scanning rod. "You're a bit elevated on your blood pressure, and your concussion is showing a slight swelling. I would recommend rest rather than questions and answers though."

"What is this?" Nemu asked as she walked in.

"Hi! Come join the party!" Kinza exclaimed. "Will someone deal her in?"

Doctor McManus returned to the hospital an hour later after instructing Rakka and Hikari on what they needed to watch for in her patient. The rest were escorted out of the guest quarters. Sol was given a new room using a bed provided from the nearly restored boy's wing of Old Home. The rest of the afternoon dozed by in relative peace and quiet.

Hikari awoke from a dozing nap she had fallen into while reading in the rocking chair by the sound of a toilet flushing. She looked over and found the bed empty, though some of the blankets were missing. Kinza then swayed around the corner looking a bit bedraggled and hung-over with the bed linen half-wrapped around himself - half dragging along behind him. He gave it a tug as it snagged something.

"Should you be out of bed?" she worriedly scolded him. It surprised her just how small this odd alien was. He was only a few inches taller than herself and hunched over the way he was only made him look shorter.

He gave her a rather grumpy look. "I do still have to go to the bathroom," he rumbled as he shuffled to the bed and fell into it. "And I didn't see any bedpans… By the way, I do hope you didn't also wash my pants."

Hikari glanced over at the kitchen. "No," she said. "When your shirt melted, I didn't toss the pants in."

He nodded as he settled back into the pillow. "Good… thank you…" he said as he closed his eyes from the stinging afternoon light. "Any idea what they did with my ship?" he asked her as he plopped his arm over his forehead.

"I saw Mr. Virgil and some of the men from the building crew collecting parts earlier," Hikari noted, "though I'm pretty sure it's still mostly in the field. Kana might know more though… she's really into that sort of stuff, you know…"

Kinza peeked out from under his arm. "A gadget geek is she?" he asked causing Hikari to start giggling which swelled to full laugher.

"Oh! I must remember that!" she cried. "That describes her exactly!"

The clock in the bell tower struck three - Three tolls that caused Kinza to wrap his head in pillows, blankets and a bird feather or two.

"Oh great Belkar's beard… I didn't need that!" he grumbled.

"You slept through all the others chimes," Hikari said as she wiped a tear away. "I'm surprised you made it throughtwelve o'clock."

"Probably some of the doctor's magic elixir doing its trick then," he said as he slowly removed the layers he had gathered. "Did she leave anything?"

Hikari reached behind herself to a dresser where two small bottles sat. She picked them up and rattled them at the Tomassamassa. "This one's if you feel any discomfort," she said. "You can take them every three hours with a maximum of four a day… This one's for your meals… By the way, what do you eat?"

"TKLs," he weakly laughed to himself. "Sorry… I eat what you eat… nothing special… the joys of working with many other life forms – you get an appreciation for other's ideas of what food is."

"What's a TKL then?" Hikari asked.

Kinza now laughed outright, which looked a bit painful to Hikari. "It's a military food bar… I have no idea what the T K and L mean, but I've heard it referred to as Tasteless Kitchen Leftovers… and of course other phrases that I shouldn't use in present company."

Hikari burst out in a giggling fit again. "Oh! Oh! Oh! Mr. Kinza! You're making me hurt!"

"No taking any of my medications, young lady!" he smirked as he managed to come out from under his arm. The light was getting easier to look at. "So, you're a Haibane, ea?"

She settled down to a snicker as she wiped her eyes and straightened herself. "Yes I am… You've never seen one before?"

He cocked his head slightly. "Well, I can't say I haven't…" he noted. "I've seen scans of Haibane… but you're the first I've actually met face to face… But then again, I wasn't supposed to meet you anyway, so this is a bonus."

"You weren't supposed to meet me?" Hikari asked. "Why was that? What were you doing that brought you here?" Just then the patch, which was now under Kinza, dinged.

"Information is prohibited!" it said. "S.A.M. System One!"

Kinza covered his face again. "S.A.M., do you understand the concept of being a pain in the butt?" The patch chirped as if it wasn't going to get any further into that question, but understood what it meant. He sighed and looked at the girl beside him.

"Let's just say, I wasn't supposed to crash land inside the walls," he said, then waited a moment to see the patch's reaction. He let go a breath of relief as it remained silent. "As a matter of fact," he continued, "the walls should have kept me outside your community."

"The walls do keep everyone inside in and those outside out," Hikari agreed. "The only ones allowed in and out are the birds, the Toga and members of The Corporation it would seem. Though Rakka told me that Claudius said that there is another group… and that the Doctor is a member of this group… I would assume you're a member of that group as well… Observers she called them?"

"BIP!" the patch went. Kinza smirked then laughed.

"Heh, that was the 'oh you guessed it' sound," he said as he sat up in the bed. "The United Nations Special Historical Records and Documentations Group… also known as The Observers… It is their duty to chronicle the history of the worlds in their universe, and in universes they can reach using a few unique starships they have." He looked at the girl and found a wide-eyed slack-jawed expression on her face and snorted. "Yea, I'd find that story a bit hokey as well…"

"No… no, I believe it," she said. "I mean, you're here now, aren't you?"

He brought his paw down on his belly with a resounding pop. "Last I could tell I was," he said with a grin.

"And you're from this ship?" she asked, the wonder still exuding from her eyes.

"Umm…" he said as he sucked on the nail of one of his fingers as he glanced at the patch. "Actually, I'm a visitor… an exchange between my fleet and theirs. You see, back home I was ill… I had a nasty little disease called Slyznics. It's a rather unique one though, as it's a bio-unimonic…"

Hikari's eyes nearly crossed. "Bio-uni… huh?" she asked.

"Bio – uni - monic…" he spoke it out for her. "Translated, it means a disease that is dependant on the universe it came from… which meant that by joining up with these guys and traveling to different dimensions, I'd put it into remission… or at least that's the theory, such as it is…"

"I take it this Slyz… thing came back?"

He rubbed his arm a bit. "Oh, it never goes away completely… it makes me itch a bit. But while I'm outside my own universe, it is inert… As a matter of fact, I can barely feel it now."

Hikari looked at her hands. "This disease isn't… you know…" she asked with a bit of worry on her face.

Kinza looked at her with a start then smiled. "No… it's not a transmitted disease. You can't get it by contact, even in my universe. Besides, I don't think you're unimonic."

Hikari sat back and cocked her head. "I'm not what?" she asked.

Kinza chuckled. "Haibane, at least in this universe, are based on the humanoid life form," he explained. "Much to the chagrin of some other life forms though, humanoids have this tendency for being quite omnipresent. Tomassamassas on the other hand are only found, so far, in my own universe, making them unimonic. And Slyznics only attacks unimonic life forms. Something about uniqueDNAor something…"

Hikari pulled a chair up beside the bed and began to rub Kinza's shoulder. "I'm sorry to hear that," she told him.

"Ea, it's okay," he said. "It's not like I'm going to croak or anything, not while I'm here that is…"

"Actually, I meant I'm sorry that you'll never be able to see your friends or family again," she corrected herself.

He shook his head. "It's not like I can't see them either," he said. "I just can't hang around for long when I do drop in on them." He looked at her directly. "It's not like I have a wall barring me from going there."

Hikari blinked. "Gee… maybe you're lucky instead," she said with a slight smile.

Kinza nodded. "Could be… it's sometimes hard to tell." He laid back and sighed. "So anyway… I'm awake now… the cobwebs seem to be clearing, and S.A.M. is eager to bleep us, so let me have it! What questions would you like answered?"

* * *

"WHAT DO YOU WANT? WHAT DO YOU WANT?"

The shouting had caught her by surprise. Rakka came around the corner of the newspaper building to see two boys rolling in the dirt, their halos bouncing about as they struggled with each other.

"Rakka! Rakka! Help please!"

She looked to the side and saw Sol standing there with her hands to her face as she watched the two boys create a cloud of dust. The fight was also starting to bring others. This was bad.

Rakka looked across the square and headed for the fountain. She grabbed a bucket that was sitting nearby and quickly filled it. She then ran back and doused the two with the ice-cold water.

"Stop it you two! STOP IT!" she screamed as they broke away from each other, now muddied and wet. "Koi! What in the world do you think you're doing?"

Koi heaved and panted like an angry dog that had just been pulled off an attack. He glared at Jester, who had taken that moment to scamper away and was now hugging the nearby wall. "Demon," he spat. "How DARE you touch a Haibane!"

The look on his face nearly caused Rakka to wonder if this was truly the boy from Old Home she knew. He was messed up, angry with a hateful look in his eyes – an expression of total contempt for the creature he was staring at. She attempted to place her hand on his shoulder, but he swatted it away.

"Enough of this," she growled. She reared back and slapped his face as hard as she could, letting her fury at his indiscretion command her strike. Koi fell back with a bright pink welt on his cheek.

"R-Rakka?" he asked. "What… why did… what am I doing on the ground? Why am I wet? What did you hit me for?" He then noticed Jester sitting against the wall and the condition he was in. "What happened to you?" he blurted.

"Me?" Jester asked planting his hands on his chest. "Attack me did you walking by Sol with! Minding business we were when crash down you did!"

Rakka saw an expression of confusion rolling over Koi's face. She looked up the side of the newspaper building and saw a man looking down at them.

"He jumped out of this window right on them," the man said.

"I did what chief editor?" Koi asked, now completely bewildered.

Rakka was about to ask him what he was thinking when she felt a tapping on her shoulder. She looked back and found Dr. McManus standing there.

"You four, come with me before the town watch get here!" she ordered while gesturing to follow her to the hospital.

"Did I hear there was a fight?" Kana yelled as she came running around the corner with Nemu. They saw the doctor ushering the four of them towards the front entry of the hospital.

"This looks serious," Nemu said as she took Kana's arm. "Come on!"

"Hey! Hey! Wait!" Kana complained as she found herself being dragged. She looked up at the elder Haibane and was about to give her a piece of her mind, but something stopped her.

"Where's your…" she started then stopped.

The halo reappeared over Nemu. Kana shook her head.

"That was weird…" she commented as Nemu opened the hospital's doors and tossed her in.

Katherine stood on the tip of the clock tower watching. She grumbled to herself.

"Something is wrong," she huffed. "It is not time… hers or any of the others…" She looked around at places where the Haibane linger – Old Home, Abandoned Factory, even the old log home out in the central western woods then back to the square below her – halos were acting as if the days of flights had come to so many.

"Are you sure?" she heard. She threw her gaze away from the heart of the town and to a simple rock out in the wood near the Scar's Village.

"Are you quite sure, goddess?" Bloodeagle asked her again. "I hear that thePhoenixsays otherwise. I hear that thePhoenixsays that the time is growing ever so much shorter. And as you know… thePhoenixnever lies."

oOo

**_Play the RPG "Sadako's Well" on AnimeMangaWorld! – email for address_**

**_Join the Renmei – Visit the C2 Community "Charcoal Feathers of Glie & Surrounding Territories"_**

Gabrella ©2005-2011 The Lugia Project/Denivan Media Services – Used with Permission

Celestials, ThePhoenixGuild ©2005-2011 C. Ruester/TiredGamer/Brightblade Productions – Used with Permission

Doctor Abigail McManus, Captain Roy Strom, Tolefson, Elb Kinza Farley, Koni, Slyznics, Scanning Rods, The Observers,UNSForrestal, Scat-Backs, The Denivan ©2005-2011 Denivan Media Services – Used with permission

Bloodeagle ©2005-2011 S. E. Nordwall – Used with permission

T-K-L Ration ©2005-2011 CBS/Paramount Television

Characters from Haibane-Renmei ©2005-2011 Yoshitoshi ABe

Story & Characters created for Haibane-Renmei: CORPORATION ©2005-2011 The Golden Halo Project/DMS

Edit & Remastering 1106.19


	9. Sinner's Rock

**.**

**2 0 1 1 - R E V I S I O N**

**-O-**

**H A I B A N E - R E N M E I :**

**C O R P O R A T I O N**

Chapter Nine

**Sinner's Rock**

By R. A. Stott

It was oblong shaped, sat roughly three to four feet tall, about four to five feet long, and seemed to have been dropped where it lay from some distance. It was hardly a natural location for this large chunk of marble. It showed signs of once being carved and that the side facing the ground had some sort of decoration on it. The top of a head stuck out of one end, and was firmly planted in the soil. It sat off the path some ways, and was easily missed by anyone walking by it. In fact, the only reason why it had been found was because someone climbed a tree.

"I tried it before," Setsu said as she watched the last of her feathers fall from her back. She held the remains of her halo in the palm of her hands. She brought it up to her face and looked through the hole.

"That one," she told herself. "That one will do fine."

She saw a tall oak towering over her in the nearby woods. It was a solitary tree, in a relative way, or at least she thought it was. When she approached it, she found that it was surrounded by old junk metal things. The shape or function that these things escaped her, but they also gave the tree a good unfettered clearing at its base. An excellent choice to toss one's self from – besides, all that metal would only help with the impact with the ground.

Six years prior, she had attempted the same feat from the wall next to the entrance to Old Home – the only way she thought she could relieve herself of the pain she felt everyone was putting her through for being the first Haibane to accuse her employer of molestation. Even though she had proven her case, she was now seen as a pariah. She could not find any work, and her Old Home sisters and brothers tormented her. So she climbed the old school's wall and attempted to see if she could make those wings on her back work – knowing that they would not.

What she did not know at that time was that a Haibane could not die in such a matter. Their body could have been smashed, but they would still survive and live to regret it. This began Setsu's fall from grace. At one time she was the epitome of a good Haibane – graceful, courteous, without a single sin to her record. She knew her dream and had a nearly flawless time at Old Home.

But then there was the job at the collections house, where the local taxes were brought. She kept excellent records, and was an expert accounting clerk. But then she found that her boss was keeping an eye on her – literally. At the trial, it was revealed that the building that she had been working in for nearly two years was rife with peep holes. Pictures were found of the women in the building in the drawer of the chief accountant, with a section strictly of Setsu dominating them all. This alone had not come forth until the man had started pressing himself upon the Haibane.

She gave her first complaint to those she lived with, her fellow Haibane at Old Home. Her senior Thido recommended that she tell the Town Watch about what this man was doing, but her fellow girls suggested against it, that it could cause trouble with the town and their home. She became confused and bewildered to what to do as the troubles persisted.

One day she finally managed to get enough courage up to bring the issue up with the human officers of the Town Watch. One told her she was imagining things. A second one actually attempted to report her to the Renmei for lying. It became worse when she found that the officer had actually told her employer of her 'story'. The man now made her life at the collections house hell. It was found that he also coerced others in the community to turn a blind eye and ear to the girl by using possible tax liens against them.

The only person who had not turned against her was Thido. He had been at Old Home longer than anyone before him. She trusted him and knew he could be talked to without being spoken down to, as many had been doing to her in the weeks this had been going on. But he was in a quandary seeing that even the Renmei seemed unable to do anything for her. He finally made the decision to make contact with the only other source of help a Haibane could get – The Corporation. The only problem was they didn't exactly have a set schedule for appearing in Glie. But he knew one way to get a message to them.

Thido was known for his tinkering. He would repair things everywhere – from the doors in the dorms that would occasionally fall down from age, to an old toaster in a senior citizen's home in Glie. He was known as the Halo Handyman. One of his favorite pastimes was the repair and restoration of the clock in the bell tower at Old Home. It would keep him busy for days then confound him with some strange error as he would eat and sleep in the dusty room at the top of the building. It also gave him a view of the night time work being done out by the Hill of Winds by The Corporation's electric crews. So one night he broke curfew and met with the foreman.

At four in the morning, Setsu was awakened by a knock on the door to her room. When she opened it, she found Thido there with an elderly gentleman in a long trench coat and a beat up fedora. He showed her a badge with a leaf emblazoned on it.

"Good morning my dear," he said to her. "My name it Ptolemy… I'm with The Corporation. I understand that you are having a problem at your work."

True to his word, Mr. Ptolemy had indeed stopped the injustice that had befallen her. But in the process, another crashed in and buried her. No one wanted to deal with a Haibane who would report them to The Corporation. It was bad enough when you had to deal with the Town Watch and the Renmei, but The Corporation meant that you were in extremely serious trouble. It also did not help any that no one knew just where her old boss was sent for his crimes. In the end, she was banished by those who were supposed to watch over her, the town folk of Glie.

So now she found herself at the base of a large oak tree. She tossed the husk of her halo aside and watched it shatter. She obviously was no longer a Haibane, so maybe the rule about not dying when you jump off a tall place was finished as well.

It was a good and strong oak. It was a bit surprising to her that it was in such a fine shape, considering the location it was in within this field of rusty old metal things, some of which were dripping nasty black goo into the soil surrounding it. She found that she was able to climb it clear to the top without it swaying too badly. She peered about and found that she was still unable to see over the walls, as she knew it would be. She also saw that she would have to move to an outer branch if she wanted her fall to be successful. As it was, the tree itself would break her drop if she were to jump too far in towards the trunk. But the view was spectacular from her location, so she stayed for a few moments.

The junk yard was larger than she thought. It went clear to the wall it seemed, though it wasn't extremely wide. A few trees to the west of her blocked most of the view of the Scar's Village, though the waterfall by the Haibane-Renmei Temple was clearly visible. She could even just make out the bell tower down by Old Home. She sighed and started down to find a suitable lower arm of the tree that would suffice for her.

She shimmied out onto a good strong branch that stuck out the furthest in the upper section of the oak. It creaked a bit, but still, with her thin body, she felt it would hold her weight long enough.

Something caught her eye just as she made it out to the furthest end of the branch that she could get to. It was a white object off towards the road, hidden behind some bushes. The sun was illuminating it brightly, so she could not make it out clearly from her height. But really she did not care much about it only that its brightness was a bit blinding, and she wanted to see if the path to the ground was clear. She cupped her eyes with her right hand while trying to maintain her balance with her left on the branch. That was not a good idea, as she found herself spinning about the narrow shaft. She had quickly snagged it with her right hand, so now she was dangling roughly a hundred feet above whatever it was below her.

"Well, this is undignified," she cursed as she bounced up and down a few times. The white something was still shining in her eyes, and now she felt that dropping out of this tree had been a mistake. A quick look between her legs told her that she wasn't clear of the branches fully either. A sizable one full of leaves was directly below her. It did seem close to the ground, so it probably wouldn't stop her fast enough.

"Maybe if I fling myself," she thought. She started making the branch she was holding bounce further. It sprung wider and deeper and higher until finally at its apex she let go. She found herself spinning and tumbling in midair momentarily – then got a face-full of the oak leaves as the branch returned and spanked her on the rebound. The force of the strike knocked her out.

Much to her surprise she woke up in a dark tube. Looking up it, she could see that a branch of the oak was directly over its round opening above her. Pieces of it were broken and she found some of them in with her. The tube seemed to curve away and was filled with brackish water.

Brackish slimy water… and it was all over her. She scrambled to get out.

She sat on the edge of the pipe. It took a moment for her to realize that she had a pain rolling up her back. She must have smacked it as she fell. She looked up at where she had dropped from and sighed. How the hell… damn!

She remembered the white object that had blinded her. She looked over and could now see it clearly – a large chunk of granite or marble or something… It was white. She gingerly climbed off the tube and limped over to it.

"Stupid rock!" she spat. At that moment a searing pain shot through her and made her wince. She bent over and supported herself with the stone.

_"Maia! Maia! Come here my little Maia!"_

Setsu stepped back from the rock, the pain still burning through her. Someone had been calling to… her? Who was this Maia?

The pain became nearly unbearable. She fell against the rock once more for support as her knees let out.

_"Daddy!"_ a young girl's voice squeaked through her mind. Setsu saw two large hands reach down and swept her off her feet. She looked down and saw a large rotund man below her who was laughing and shaking her.

_"How's my little cherub today?"_ he said to her as she squealed and giggled.

"I know this man," Setsu said to herself as she spun and sat down against the stone. The pain seemed less now as she did so. "Why should I know this man? What are these visions in my head? What is this rock?"

"It is forbidden knowledge," she heard. She opened her eyes and looked beside herself. A pair of sandaled feet greeted her. She tried to look up, but the pain returned. She then simply slumped over so she could see more clearly who was there.

"C-Communicator?" she asked. "What? What are you doing here?"

He turned and looked behind himself. There were two Toga there. He gestured to them with his sign language. They both nodded and trotted off.

"We knew of your coming to the Scar's Village," he told her as he bent down and held her wrist. "You have injured yourself… why?"

She began to sob. "I want this to end," she said. "I want this all to end!"

The old man shook his head. "It is not for you to decide," he told her as gently but as forcefully as possible. "And now you will be forced to live with the consequences."

"I've broken something, haven't I?" she asked through her tears and a returning pain in her back.

"One of the stubs of your wings seems to have been torn off," the Communicator reported. "And you have serious contusions to your spine."

"What? Now you're a damn doctor!" she spat. She dropped her head into the grassy dirt as the anger melted again to tears. "I'm sorry… I'm sorry… I'm sorry…" she whispered as she felt herself loose any energy to remain conscious.

When she awoke, she found that she was in a small nearly empty white room with a single window, a single bed and a single Toga reading a book beside her. When he noticed that he was being looked at, he nodded to her and stood up. He placed the book on the chair he had been sitting in and left the room.

Setsu looked about. Other than the chair and the window, and a single light bulb in the center of the extremely far away ceiling the room seemed to be absolutely sterile and void of anything worth examining… save the book on the chair. But reaching for it seemed out of the question. Just the simple movement of her head to look at it on the chair had made her back scream at her. But she could still read the beat-up spine and she sighed.

"A Toga reading The Adventures of Tom Sawyer," she laughed. "Now I've seen everything."

It was a few hours until the Toga returned and removed the only thing remarkable in the room – the book. He left the room and Setsu remained alone again for another few hours. It was a bit more than infuriating to her, but it did give her time to run through some tests she began to do to herself. From the pain she was feeling in her back, she was worried that she may have done some further damage. She first moved her left arm. It swung up and she twiddled her fingers to her face. The movement of her arm above her head, though, made something pinch her. She felt that she had been bandaged, and that the other stub of wing was now missing. Just as well.

A successful launching of her right arm and finger movements was made, though she noticed that sensation was limited in her pinky and forefinger.

_"Daddy! I hurt myself!"_

"What the…" ran through her head. "Where did that memory come from?" she asked herself as she attempted to raise her left leg. The bed sheet slipped off as she found a cast surrounding the lower part of the extremity. She brought it down with a thud on the mattress which she quickly discerned was a mistake as a painful lightning bolt shot up both her leg and spine.

Once she no longer saw stars in her eyes, she brought her attention to her right leg. She could see bandages wrapping it above the ankle. She wiggled her toes, so that was a good sign. But for some reason, the rest of the leg refused to respond to her attempt to raise it.

"Great…" she grumbled. "What did I do to myself?" She looked at the door, half expecting a curt reply by that old fussbudget Communicator, but silence greeted her. She sighed and stared at the ceiling, which didn't seem so far away now that she was fully awake.

A plinking sound caught her attention. It was coming from over by the window. She slowly turned her head so as to not inflict the jolt of pain through herself as she had before when she turned to look at it. A splatter of rain was starting to play off it. Soon the light tapping became a drum roll as the storm let loose with a torrent.

"It makes me feel all wet again," she said to herself.

"What? What did I say?"

Screeching…

_"MOMMY!"_

A sound of metal being twisted and wrenched – torn from mounted positions against its will – glass bursting into beads of oddly shaped crystal stones – more metal being rendered with a jolt – then silence – a vision of the sky becoming ground becoming stones becoming sky again – then water.

A woman was beside her, the side of her face seemingly pressed into a pillow.

_"Honey…"_ she said as she reached for her.

Impact – water – darkness – cold…

Setsu felt a shiver. She wanted to sit up and draw the blanket over herself, but the pain that was shooting up her back prevented her from doing so. She managed to drag it back over herself and returned to staring at the ceiling.

"What are these visions I am seeing?" she whispered to herself. "Why am I seeing them?"

"Because you touched the stone, my dear," a reply came from the window.

"It's about time," she angrily grumbled then took it back as she looked over to see a tall red-skinned woman leaning against the wall.

"It's just like them to make an injured person wait, isn't it?" the woman smirked. "Well, such is the hierarchy here in the Temple."

"Th - the Temple?" Setsu gasped. "I'm in the Temple of the Haibane-Renmei? Why?"

The woman chuckled. "My dear, you've broken your back in two places! I'm even surprised that you can move your head, let alone move your arms… and almost all your legs. But seriously now, I doubt that they'd just drop you off in the Scar's Village in your condition. And the hospital in Glie wouldn't take a fallen Haibane, now would they?"

Setsu glared at the woman. "Who are you?" she asked flatly. The woman winked at her and held a finger to her mouth to hush her as she looked briefly towards the door.

"Let's just say that I'm an option!" With that she stepped backwards through the wall.

"Now I'm seeing things," Setsu mumbled as she planted her head into her pillow. The door creaked drawing her attention to it.

"I am sorry to have made you wait," the old Communicator said as he sat down in the chair beside her. "How do you feel?"

"Ignored, as usual," she replied. "So, how many pieces?"

The Communicator sat back. "Excuse me?"

"How many pieces is my back in?" she asked again, a great sense of anger in her voice now playing.

The Communicator tapped his cane on the floor. "As I told you before, you did indeed injure yourself in your fall. Presently, we think you have a single broken vertebrae…"

"Try two," she snapped back as she glared at the ceiling. She heard the cane tap again, though this time a bit harder.

There was an awkward moment of silence in the room. "So, you had a visitor," he finally stated more than asked.

"Did I?" she asked. "I'm not sure… since when do people walk through walls around here?"

The old man sighed. "Not often… but at times, they do… at least up here at the Temple."

Setsu's eyes grew wide as she slowly drew her head in his direction. "Are… you telling me that… I wasn't just seeing that?"

He grunted. "A tall red woman with long curly black hair?" he described. He saw the girl slightly nod in agreement. "We have had discussions before," he said. "She will be one of your options of what you may do in the near future."

"Options?" Setsu asked as she draped her right arm over her forehead.

He nodded. "Having fallen, you no longer have the option of flight," he stated. "But you do still have a few other options left to you while you are here at the Temple. And with the appearance of Miss Gabrella, I would say that some extra opportunities may have opened up for you."

"I don't understand," Setsu whimpered. "I thought I was through… A fallen Haibane must be banished… exiled… excommunicated…"

"Nothing so dramatic," he said, "and certainly not excommunication. You may be surprised by just how many in the Village go to the church there."

"Then what options are there for me then?" She was tired of this forced fed life that she had been given.

"You could go with Miss Gabrella for one," the Communicator said. "She would take you out of Glie and to her home."

"Out of Glie?" she asked now with a small amount of spite in her voice. "Do you mean over the wall?"

"No child, through…" he stated flatly. "There are two ways through the wall. The one in the heart of Glie - Through this gate you would be expelled back to the outside world, with no memory of what you were before coming here, and little memory of what it was like being here."

She covered her eyes. "Just enough to know that I was missing something, right? Nothing like being thrown out with the trash, is there?"

The Communicator ignored the spiteful barb and continued. "Once on the outside, you would pass your days until oblivion takes you. There is no destiny for such souls."

"How cheerful," she sniped.

He sighed. "I must tell you the truth, child. To do otherwise would be…"

She glared at him from under her arm. "Don't you DARE use that word right now!"

"Agreed," he told her. "On the opposite wall from the Northern Gate is another door. It is hidden from all except the demon, and only she may take you through it."

Setsu shuddered. "So it is true then?" she asked. "I had heard of rumors… of another door in the wall that would send you… send you to…"

"Oh just say it," Gabrella said as she stuck her head through the wall again. "Hades, Hell, or my favorite, _THE BASEMENT_… Who thought up that name, really?"

Setsu wanted to shrink under her covers, but her back kept her from doing so as the woman leaned over her in her bed. "The trouble is I'm not sure if we really want her either. Up until, well… you know what…" - She drew her finger through the air showing the trajectory of Setsu's flight off the Old Home's wall – "…she was one of the best you had. She still is too good for us."

The Communicator pounded his staff on the hard floor causing the woman to wince. "That will be all, demon," he barked.

"Don't give me that, you old myopic codger!" she hissed back. "I'm just giving it to you as I see it! She wouldn't last a day down there, and you know how my father is about that!" She quickly turned to the girl and added, "Nothing personal kid… It's just the way it is!"

"I'm… I'm not even good enough for hell?" Setsu whimpered through her blanket.

"No, no," the Communicator said to settle her. "She is saying that you are too good." He sat back and looked down. "It is a quandary, but that does leave you with only one other option other than exile out the main gate… life in the Scar's Village."

"I can stay? Here?" she asked with a touch of fear. "The people… they… the people…"

"The people of Glie would no longer know you, since you would no longer be allowed into town," he reminded her. "Those sent to the village are not allowed to venture past the Gideon Span."

"Which gives me a great idea," Gabrella interjected as she clapped her hands and grinned at the old man. "Aren't you in need of… a sister?"

The Communicator stood up. Setsu was thinking he was about to hit the demon with his cane, but he took a step back instead, his mono-eye almost glaring at the woman. He turned away and stalked about the far end of the room for a moment. He finally stopped and looked back at the girl in the bed.

"She does state a possible truth," he sighed. "There is a third option for you to decide upon. It would be difficult, but you do represent the correct age to start the position… you would require the permission of the Haibane-Renmei… the position of Greeter is currently open. You could become that."

"Greeter?" she asked as a twinge of pain struck her. "What is a greeter?" She found Gabrella straightening her bed coverings and tucking her in a bit.

"Actually the position's name is Communicator/Greeter of the Flightless," she told her in a near whisper. "You can see why they shortened it to just Greeter." She stopped and pulled away from her when she found the head of the Communicator's staff between herself and the bedridden girl.

"Hey! Hey!" they heard from the doorway. "That will be quite enough of that around my patient!" The demon woman and the Communicator stood back. Gabrella started whistling at the ceiling.

"This is your doctor, and the man who will be operating on your back, Dr. Hippocrates," the Communicator introduced. The man at the doorway nodded towards her as he dragged in a rather heavy looking case with a singed corner.

"Did Jester get you as you were coming in?" Gabrella giggled as the scorch mark gave off a slight whiff of smoke. The doctor tapped it again to make sure it was out.

"Is there a specific reason why he has to do that?" he asked as he drew out of the bag some equipment and a stethoscope. "Or is he just fixated on trying to torch something?"

Gabrella shrugged. "He's a pyro, what can I say?"

Setsu looked at the tall man with a lanky face and swept back blond hair. "Are you from the hospital in Glie?" she asked him as he placed the cold end of the stethoscope on her chest.

"Not me kiddo," he replied as he shook a thermometer and stuck it under her tongue. He then wrapped her arm with a sphygmomanometer and started to check her blood pressure. "I'm the chief surgeon from The Corporation. So, have you figured out a new name for yourself yet?"

Setsu looked about confused. "N-name? My name is Setsu," she stated.

"That is your Haibane name," the Communicator noted. "Now that you are no longer one, you must choose another one… a sinner's name."

"Hades, must you always be so blunt?" Gabrella remarked as she leaned against the wall.

"It's the nature of his job," the doctor said noting his patient's readings in a little book. "You must be Gabrella," he added and reached over to shake her hand. "Well, this does save time having you both here. Has any decision been made yet on where she will be?"

"We just completed giving her the options open for her," the old man said. He tapped his cane lightly as he turned towards the door. "We have given her three choices to choose from."

The doctor looked at the two standing around the bed. "Only three? I was under the assumption that there were four options available." He watched Gabrella then bow to him and back through the wall. "I see… Well then, as soon as we have a decision the sooner I will be able to get to work."

"Get to work?" Setsu complained. "Excuse me but please stop talking about me as if I'm not even in this room! What work doctor?"

He looked down on her. "Plain and simple and to the point then," he agreed. "If I don't operate, you will soon loose all feeling and movement in your legs."

She felt a wave of fear flow through her. "You make it sound like there was an option not to."

He gestured towards the departed demon. "Well, if Gabrella had allowed you the option of going with her, then yes, I would have had that option as well. There are two directions where an injury like yours would not have mattered – going up or going down. But since up is out of the question here, and going down has quite literally bowed out, then it is my duty to make you as comfortable as possible while you remain here, or leave through the town's gate." He looked over at the old man by the door. "Was the third option told to her?"

The question was answered by a hard clacking of the cane to the floor. "The demon told her," he grumbled. He looked up just as he found the doctor rapping his notebook off his forehead.

"Unbiased son," he told the Communicator, which shocked Setsu that someone could be so informal with the old man, let alone called him son. "You must remain unbiased. Yes you should direct them towards the pearly gates as much as possible, but if the case arises where it is impossible, then we must agree to see to it that the best care is provided."

He saw the Communicator start to get down on one knee which bothered him. "No, don't do that," the doctor griped as he bent down to pick him up. "I am not the Renmei – not by a long shot." He then looked back at Setsu. "I am going to send in a colleague of mine to explain to you your options." He looked back at the old man and added, "I may have her stop in on you as well – give you an update on your mission and such."

"But I…" he started and then found a hand held up.

"Doctor's orders," he was told bluntly. "Heck, I might have her do a complete diagnostic report on the entire Renmei hierarchy… if there's anyone left up there that is… I think they might need a tune-up." He zipped his bag closed and rubbed the head of the bewildered girl in the bed. "Take care, kiddo."

"Excuse me doctor," Setsu meekly asked, "I thought that being sin-bound meant that you had only one option open to you."

"Kiddo, there are always options," he replied as he dropped his hat back on his head. "Never doubt that. The trouble is, sometimes one bad option only leads to another. But there's no need to worry… the three that I see for you are survivable. They aren't easy, not by a long shot. Iris will be here in the morning. She will be able to describe them better than I will. She will also inform you when I will be scheduling your operation. I will see you soon kiddo." The door quickly swung shut leaving a perplexed girl in bed behind it.

"Is he gone?" Gabrella asked from the wall. The Communicator whacked it with his cane making her vanish.

Most of that night was stormy outside the room. Setsu could not sleep, or at least she thought she could not. She was shocked awake with the light coming in the window late in the morning by the sudden opening of her door. The fright caused all of her wounds to sting and her back to cramp up. She suddenly found her right leg, which she could not move that previous day, snap and twitch convulsively. It took a moment for her to settle everything down and gather up her senses. She looked at the doorway and stared.

A rather tall woman in a gray pinstriped business suit was standing there looking down on her. Her blond hair was swirled up in a tight bundle on the back of her head, and she wore a chic rectangular pair of glasses. The totally-out-of-place-to-her-surroundings look to her stunned Setsu.

"Ow," the bedridden girl said. It was all she could muster at that point.

"Oh, I'm terribly sorry!" the woman suddenly broke. "Did I startle you?" She then proceeded to bang and crash a large black rolling tote into the room with her. With a room that had only the bed, a chair, a window and the door, she seemed quite able to hit them all with this block-on-wheels.

"Iris, you could wake the entire Trojan Army with all that racket you're making!" a familiar voice squawked at her from outside the room. "Hey little lady… how are you doing?" Ptolemy asked from the doorway.

Setsu first smiled at the man who had helped her those years prior before she had become sin-bound. But then she turned away and looked at the window. "Okay," she whispered. "W-what brings you up to the temple?"

She winced when he said "You mostly. I have business with Com-One, and I need to also take a few alignment readings, but otherwise I'm here to see how you are doing. Are you sure you're just 'okay' child?"

She shook a bit as she began to cry, which sent shooting pains up her spine, but she did not care. "No," she finally admitted. "But why should you care?"

She felt a hand touch her head. "Child, I will always care," he told her. "Wings or no wings, I will always care for my little boppet. You know that."

She looked back at the old man and grabbed his arm and sobbed into his hand. "I'm tired... I'm so very tired... I want to just go away!"

_"How's my little boppet today?"_

She looked up from the computer monitor she had been staring at to the man beside her and smiled. _"Oh, hello Uncle Claudius! I didn't hear you come in!"_

_"So what's got you cooped up in here?"_ he asked the girl seated at the keyboard. _"Your sisters were wondering if you wanted to play with them."_

She reached over and tapped the monitor she had been looking at when he came in. _"I'm reading an RPG story someone posted on this web site,"_ she said. He bent down and read over her shoulder. _"I was thinking of joining in."_

Uncle Claudius cocked his head as he read. _"Lady Bloodeagle?"_ he asked.

She giggled. _"Yea, she's a reformed vampire! Isn't she neat?"_

Setsu gasped as she clutched at the arm she held in her hands, wrenched from her vision by a sharp pain in her back. She looked up at Ptolemy with wide-opened eyes.

"Where... who was..." she asked. "What are these... memories I am seeing Uncle Claudius?"

The scientist sat in the chair beside the bed and looked closely at her. "Memories?" he asked. "Exactly what memories would these be?"

She slung her left arm over her head covering her eyes. "I don't know," she moaned as she attempted to shake her head. "I see this girl... first she was a toddler with this huge man... then I saw her just now as a teenager…"

She felt the old man clutch her hand a bit tighter. "What else?" he asked her. "Do you remember anything else?"

She noticed the oddly concerned expression on Ptolemy. "Only snippets... but, I could have sworn that you were there."

"Yes, I kind of guessed," she heard him mumble. "Anything else?"

Setsu thought. The room changed. A different bed – a large window now filled the far wall with drapes that stood out from the breeze… a salty cool breeze… Dolls festooned a library, and posters covered a wall beside the window. A closet of clothes was next to the pictures - its contents nearly spilling out its partly opened door. Beside it was a floor-to-ceiling mirror. She stepped before it and examined the girl who greeted her.

'Well now, who are you?' Setsu and the image both wondered. "I see a teenaged girl," she told those in the room with her. "She is almost my size… she wears oval glasses, and has her dark brown hair is braided. Uncle Claudius, who is she?"

Setsu's vision faded as the pressure on her hand grew a bit. She blinked and looked over at the scientist, and found him looking over at the woman on the opposite side of the bed from himself. She seemed stunned by what she had heard. She looked down on her and asked, "Do you know this girl's name?"

"Maia," Setsu said outright, getting her hand nearly crushed by Ptolemy. "Ow, Uncle, what's the matter?"

Ptolemy released her hand when he finally realized what he was doing. "Oh, I'm sorry dear," he said as he gathered his wits. "It's just…"

Iris cleared her throat cutting the scientist off. "Confirmation first Professor," she whispered. He scowled at her, but nodded. He looked down on Setsu and sighed.

"I need more data," he told her.

"Puget Sound," Setsu reported back nearly causing the man to jump out of the chair. He looked at her, then the end of the bed, then stood up and proceeded to parade about the room. He seemed to be in deep thought within himself.

"This is supposed to be impossible… she isn't supposed… how… why… how is this possible? She looks like… no… no…" he pondered to himself as he paced. He then snapped his fingers loudly. "Keep with the interview," he told Iris as he picked up his jacket and headed for the door. "I'll be back boppet!"

The room became very quiet for a moment. Setsu finally broke it by asking, "Okay, are you going to tell me what that was all about, or am I going to have to guess?"

Iris adjusted her glasses and straightened her seating position. "I am not allowed to say," she told her in as proper and business like as possible. "Now then, why don't we get started?"

"I'm going to have to guess, aren't I?"

Iris cleared her throat again. "Now then," she continued as she produced a series of papers and forms, "you are being given three distinct choices since you are no longer a Haibane…"

Setsu saw she wasn't going to get a straight answer out of this one. "Miss Iris, just who or what are you?" she asked bluntly. The woman held the papers up and blinked at her.

"Me?" she asked as if it boggled her a moment. "I'm an HHR Specialist!"

Setsu bent her head as much as she dared. "HHR?" she asked.

Iris smiled and became a bit too perky for Setsu to stand. "Uh huh! Human and Haibane Resources! It's my job to help place people in jobs that fit their skill level. It is also my job to assist a select few fallen Haibane with their final determination and placement within our society and community. Now, as I said, you have been given three possible positions that you may take. It is my job here to describe these positions to you, so let us start with this one..." She handed her one of the pages she had pulled out of her case.

"This first position is that of a Defrocked Refugee," she told her as if it were a paying job. "This position can be a choice position - in other words, you could choose this right away if you wish - or it can be handed down as a judgment of the Haibane-Renmei. A Defrocked Refugee is an expelled citizen, be it self or censured, who is stripped of their memory and knowledge of their time within the holy site, in this case, the town of Guri/Glie, and sent beyond the wall to the land of man where they shall live out their life. Truth be told, there have been a few who were sent off this way and became quite successful in the outside world - but as noted, only a few."

"Sounds delightful," Setsu said as she dropped the sheet. "What is the next choice?"

Iris cleared her throat as she handed her the next page, "The second position is that of a Defrocked Villager. Given ex-Haibane would be allowed a two week grace period to settle into a provided shelter within the holy site's Scar's Village, again in this case, Guri/Glie. Upon the completion of this time allotment, the tenant would then be provided the opportunity of employment within the Village as a permanent resident, pro tem..."

Setsu looked over the sheet of paper she held at the woman. "Permanent resident, pro tem?" she asked her. "Isn't that contrary to one another?"

She looked up at her classmates and cleared her throat as she began to read her report. _"In the United States Senate, the vice president resides as its president, and is empowered with the duty of tie-breaker for Senate votes. Since this is a rare situation, the vice president does not normally attend the Senate. At these times, the Senate will select within themselves a President Pro-Tempore who shall supervise..."_

Setsu shook her head slightly and focused on the document in her hand. Whoever this girl was, her memories were sometimes bothersome.

Iris looked at the copy of the sheet she had and adjusted her glasses. "Well that's the way it's written, and the next section does explain why,"

Setsu snapped her sheet in perplexed anger at the language it was using. "A temporary permanent resident is an impossibility!" she complained.

Iris sighed and scanned her sheet to refresh her thoughts. "Well, here is what it means... The resident shall be supervised and watched over by the Renmei and Toga/Town Watch. Merits and/or demerits shall be tallied for the resident by these officials. Too many demerits or any severe infractions may result in the termination of resident status. If an official censure is brought down upon the resident by the Haibane-Renmei, the resident shall be reclassified a Refugee, and given two days to prepare for expulsion from the holy site, said Guri/Glie."

"Well that sounds harsh," Setsu grumbled. "Why are they so tough on us ex-Haibane?"

"Those in the Scar's Village are not all defrocked Haibane, dear," Iris noted as she tapped her glasses up her nose. "The humans there as well are judged in very much the same way as the Haibane, and can also be listed as a refugee. The only difference is that they do not loose their memory when being cast out."

"That's not fair!" Setsu complained. "Why do they get to keep their memories, and we loose ours?"

Iris removed her glasses. "Are you sure you mean that?" she asked the girl. "An ex-Haibane gets to start their lives over - COMPLETELY. A human has to live with the memory of what and all they left behind. Before you judge, you might want to consider this."

Setsu pouted a moment. "And what happens to a Haibane when they grow old on the outside? What happens when they die?"

Iris sat up and looked down on a pad she was clutching in her lap. "Umm... that's handled by a different department," she said as she started to shuffle some papers.

"Well, if I can't have a Day of Flight, and the... umm... basement has rejected me..." Setsu glared at the ceiling as she dropped her arms with the page down onto her belly and tore it in two. "There's no hope for me, is there?"

Iris seemed to not know whether to comfort the girl or fiddle with her papers. "Well... honestly... I mean, you shouldn't look at it that..."

"THERE IS NO FUTURE FOR ME!" Setsu exploded. "Not for ME, not for my SOUL, not here, there or anywhere! Don't you see that? Don't you see that when I die, I will simply disappear? That there will be no continuation?"

Maia stood before her classmates and swallowed as she opened the old book to its very first line.

_"In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the deep. And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness... Oh!"_

She watched as a couple of small pieces of paper fell out of the old Bible. She looked up at the Sunday School teacher and gave her a worried smile.

_"I'm sorry, Miss Katherine,"_ she nervously said as she gathered the stray pieces. _"This is an old family Bible, and my late Aunt used to stuff it full of little newspaper clippings."_

_"Divine providence, then Maia,"_ the teacher said. _"Read them aloud to see if they give you guidance and meaning."_

She nervously gathered the two yellow-brown scraps of newsprint. The first one was nearly crumbling in her hands.

_"Difficulties - What if the road be long, the goal is richer for the struggle you have made."_ She shuffled to the next slip.

_"To Days of Victory - Pass not from me, oh days lived through..."_

"...in beauty and in strength, stay where my mind can ever reach your gorgeous golden length."

Iris blinked at her. First she was exploding like a volcano in heat, now she was quoting prose. "That was beautiful," she told Setsu.

The girl stared at the ceiling. "Its something I read once," she said. She looked at the torn paper in her hands and put them aside. "That's not for me... what's this third option?"

Iris held the sheet to her chest as if she did not want it torn in two as well. "Umm, well the third option is this," she told her as she handed her the paper. "Communicator/Greeter of the Flightless... sounds lovely... The GoF is the lowest ranking authority within the Haibane-Renmei sanctioning body, and is stationed within the Scar's Village as the direct contact person for the residents. This requires that the employed must adhere to the rules and laws of the Haibane-Renmei - the employed will be trained on the proper use and operations of the Mono-Eye..."

"Mono-Eye?" Setsu interrupted her. "Do you mean that goofy looking mask the Communicator wears?"

Iris scowled at her. "That goofy mask, as you put it, would be your mark of authority, and is a highly sophisticated piece of equipment required by communicators to be able to 'see' through doubt and lies. It informs the wearer and advises them. Unlike the true Washi though, the GoF is not required to wear the mask at all times."

"That's odd," Setsu said as she scanned over the paper she held looking for any reference to the mask. "I wonder why that is."

"The Mono-Eye the Communicator uses serves two functions," Iris said as she too scanned her paper to find where she left off. "The first is of course as the wearer's information assistant. The second is to hide the face of the communicator. During negotiations, it prevents the other side of the discussion from seeing the emotions of the Washi."

"Heh," Setsu half-laughed. "That doesn't always work out right, does it? What with the way he taps that stick of his..."

Iris nudged on her glasses again and nodded. "He has been advised about that, yes," she sighed under her breath. "But unlike the Communicator, the GoF would not be required to pass judgments or negotiate with outside sources, such as on Market Day or with The Corporation or any higher authorities."

Setsu looked at her with a confused expression. "There are higher authorities than The Corporation?"

"There are always higher authorities to deal with, even over The Corporation," Iris explained. "But normally, The Corporation is the highest group that the Communicator has to deal with other than the Haibane-Renmei council itself."

"Then what about the GoF?" Setsu asked.

Iris straightened out her copy of the paper. "The highest person the GoF needs to deal with is the Communicator. The GoF works as the information gatherer for Washi, and is also responsible for explaining the rulings of the Renmei to the other villagers."

Setsu covered her head with the paper. "That sounds almost like the GoF is the Communicator's enforcer."

"Yes and no," Iris said, cocking her head to one side. "Representative and assistant are still better descriptions. The position is demanding though. The candidate would be required to be able to handle the stress and strain of dealing with those who are traumatized, depressed, even suicidal..." She glanced down at the girl in the bed and coughed. "Sorry..."

_"A girl from the other group jumped off the lighthouse tower?"_ Maia asked her friend as she slurped on her soda during the school trip. _"And she survived?"_

_"That's what they said,"_ the boy beside her replied as they watched the rescue personnel working from a distance. _"They say that the updraft blew her against the side of the tower and caused her to slide down it, even through she was going face-first. She's got to be a mess."_

_"Maia!"_ she heard. She saw a girl running through the gathered crowd waving at her as she tried to part the people away. _"Maia! Maia, come quickly!"_

_"What is it Sara?"_ she asked her frantic friend.

_"The girl who jumped,"_ she started crying. _"It's was your sister Stephanie!"_

Her drink and sandwich fell to the ground as the world turned into a blurry and slowed shaky universe. The people between her and the rescue site seemed to become a wall that were keeping her from getting to see if what her friend had said was true. She attempted to move between them, but found only uncaring statues blocking all attempts. Finally, after she was nearly in a panic, a hand grabbed hers and began dragging her towards the incident, parting the unmovable mass. She looked up the arm and saw it was a familiar adult.

_"Mr. Montgomery!"_ she exclaimed to Sara's father and one of the chaperones for the trip. He also happened to be a police officer, so he seemed to know how to part crowds. _"What's going on?"_ As they got up to a yellow tape boundary, he spun and bent down to face her.

_"I need you to be brave,"_ he told her as he lifted the tape and shooed her under it. _"Where are your parents?"_

_"They're probably both at work,"_ she said as she pulled out a small cell phone and started zipping through its numbers listings. _"There."_ She handed the device to the officer so that he could use it.

_"Well you're a cool one under pressure,"_ he noted as he took the phone from her.

_"Well, there's no sense in panicking,"_ she lied to herself as she felt her stomach churn. _"Is she alive? Was it Steph...?"_

She saw her answer when the stretcher with the young girl was lifted up by the paramedics. She had not taken the header as rumored, but instead had been slammed against the lighthouse with her back where she then hit the base of the tower feet first. The major damage had been done to the girl's lower extremities, so her face made it easy for Maia to verify it was indeed her little sister. Her knees buckled.

_"NO!"_ she screamed. Mr. Montgomery gathered her up and escorted her to a patrol car. They followed the ambulance out of the park as it headed to a nearby airport where a helicopter was waiting. The officer driving relayed her parent's phone numbers to his dispatcher as she and Mr. Montgomery sat in the rear of the car.

_"It's probably that Orion boy's fault,"_ she accused aloud while staring at her feet, _"the jerk! He's been pestering and chasing after us girls for months."_

_"I thought your folks had put a restraining order on him,"_ Montgomery said as he looked down at her.

_"Three of us go to the same school as he does - it's kind of hard to avoid him!" _She grabbed her knees and shivered. _"Stephanie always tried to hide, but she always got the worst of that kid."_

It began to rain as they turned into the airport's drive.

"You know, I never contemplated suicide until I came here," Setsu said as she examined the paper in her hands. She glanced over at The Corporation HHR beside her and saw a shocked look on her face. She smiled and returned to the sheet.

"I'll take it..." she said. "Get me fixed up."

* * *

Ptolemy and the Communicator examined the large white chunk of marble granite in the junk yard. "This is a piece of the old Science Ministry facade," the professor said as he probed around it. He turned and looked towards the western wall. "That used to be over that way."

The Communicator stood away from the stone and avoided any contact with it. "We are considering destroying it," he told his friend.

"I wouldn't try it," Ptolemy replied. "I doubt that anyone from here, be they human or Haibane, could get anywhere near this thing without being affected - plus the fact that this is essential to the continued health or this holy site. This is the electromagnetic center of Glie."

The Communicator looked about. "This is hardly the center of Guri," he noted.

Ptolemy looked at a compass he held out in his hand. The arrow always pointed at the stone no matter where he stood around it. "Well, that doesn't matter. The electromagnetic center does not have to be at the center of the world. Just look at the Earth's own. It's near, but not at the North Pole, and it's been known to move. This one, though, can not be removed or it would unbalance this Holy Site."

"Unbalance? In what way?"

Ptolemy whistled and shook his head. "Name it - first thing we would probably notice would be landings going anywhere they pleased. We'd probably find controlling Glie's status within the Jewels a hassle, which would mean the Toga would not be able to come and go through the town gate portage. Eventually even The Corporation links through the Demon's Gates would break, leaving the Guri Plate to escape the confines of the Jewels to be spun off heaven knows where!"

"I see," the Communicator grumbled as he stared at the white block. "Is there a suitable replacement that can be installed in its place?"

Ptolemy gave him a wary look. "Possibly, but I'd be more inclined to say no. It is something we will have to look into. You see, this could be what is responsible for the Haibane to loose their memories of their previous lives as well."

"Do all of the other holy sites have one of these... markers?" Washi asked.

"Every one of them," Ptolemy stated. "But this is only the second time where a Haibane, or a former Haibane, has found it first and touched it - And of all the children to have done so!" He lowered and shook his head.

"Then I take it that the rumor is true," the Communicator said as he tapped him on his shoulder with his staff. "You know who this child was."

He nodded. "You remember about seven years ago now when there was a week you could not contact The Corporation?" he asked him. "It was the week that you complained to me that all hell was breaking loose out here and there seemed to be no support being done?"

The Communicator crossed his arms and leaned against the oak tree. "Yes, I seem to remember that particular week."

Ptolemy wiped his head with a handkerchief he had in his pocket. "That was two weeks that we could have lived without in The Corporation," he said as he sat down beside Washi at the base of the oak. "First, one of Director Plato's daughters tried to commit suicide while on a class trip to Cape Disappointment, Washington when she jumped from the lighthouse there. She somehow survived her attempt, but the nearest hospital was in Astoria, Oregon. And once she arrived there, she was so bad off that she could not be moved."

"What are you two talking about Columbia Memorial for?" they heard. They looked over at the entrance to the junk yard and saw Doc Hipp leaning against some sort of vehicle.

"I was telling my brother here about the events of seven years ago," Ptolemy said as he patted the Communicator on the shoulder.

Hipp squirreled up his face as he lit a cigarette and thought about seven years prior and what tied it to that particular hospital. It then dawned on him and he got an even quirkier look.

"Why?" he asked loudly as he came over and sat on a metal box near the two men.

"I'll get to it," Ptolemy said. "Anyway, which one was it...? Alison? Celia?"

"Stephanie," the doctor said as he pulled an organizer out of his pocket. "That reminds me, I have to schedule her in for a checkup this week. The boss may have disowned her, but she is still family."

"Plato disowned his own daughter?" Washi asked. "The poor child, just when she needed the support..."

"That wasn't when he disowned her," Hipp said between puffs.

Ptolemy stood up and circled the tree. "No, it wasn't," he agreed. "For the next week, Plato's wife, Leda, drove the 160 miles from their home in Gig Harbor down to Astoria daily. On the third trip of the second week though, she never got back. A lumber truck sideswiped her SUV and sent her and her oldest daughter Maia into Puget Sound, where they both drowned."

"Ah," the Communicator said. "This was near mid-week, correct?"

Ptolemy nodded as he pointed at him. "The Shower of Angels you reported then, correct." He saw that Hipp was now fully confused.

"What are you saying?" the doctor asked through a long drag on the burning weed. Ptolemy came over and patted him on the shoulder.

"Hipp old buddy," he said with a smirk, "your patient told me that her name was actually Maia."

The doctor spat his cigarette out. "What! She doesn't even look like Maia!"

"It is not uncommon for the Haibane to appear different to what they looked like prior to coming here," Ptolemy noted. "Just because Setsu is blonde with blue eyes doesn't mean she could have been Maia with brown eyes and brunette."

"I'm never going to figure these places out," Hipp grumbled as he picked up his lost cigarette. "Yet we have Adam up in Tripoli who looks exactly like my friend's son Toby, who also died in an auto accident. Is there a way to explain that?"

"There isn't," Ptolemy said as he sat back down. "It's simply the nature of this place we created. As for this stone, we can't destroy it, but we can make it safer for the citizens here."

Hipp looked back at the white chunk of building. "Why? What did you find here?"

Ptolemy nodded towards it. "Setsu found it... this holy site's Sinner's Rock."

* * *

Plato sat at his desk contemplating a photograph of his family that was sitting on the corner. Ptolemy and Iris sat across from him having just finished with their report on the situation.

"You feel that she will continue to regain her memory?" he asked his chief scientist.

"Without a doubt," Ptolemy answered him. "We all saw the example of what happened in Kanto when their Washi touched their stone... she eventually remembered her entire life outside the walls..."

"...And she attempted to commit suicide because it drove her mad," Plato finished.

"I doubt Setsu will do that," Iris interjected. "She seems to have settled with the knowledge of it all. She seems eager to take on her new job in the Scar's Village."

The director turned towards the window behind himself. "Why did we not know sooner of her pre-integration source?" he asked.

"She was brought in during the Shower of Angels event seven years ago, Aris," Ptolemy carefully explained. "There were so many landings that week that we never could discern right where most of them originated from because of all the crossed paths."

"Then the memory Setsu has may not be hers but simply one obtained from the rock?" Plato asked looking back.

Ptolemy scrunched his face and shook his head no. "I doubt that. In the Kanto Holy Site case, the Communicator there regained her own memories. Even though it is possible for her to acquire those memories from another person, I really don't think that is what happened here. To make sure about it though, I'm having Hipp run a few tests after he's completed with his operation on her to see if we can confirm her statements."

Plato leaned back in his chair. "What sort of tests? Not anything that could get us in trouble, I assume?"

Ptolemy scratched his ear. "Well, there's only one test that would determine whether or not she is truly your daughter, and since both the attic and the basement have waved claims on her, they've pretty much given up all rights to complain if I do a DNA scan on her. DNA is the only remaining factor that remains the same between this world and the Holy Sites."

"And what of Glie's Sinner's Rock?"

Ptolemy opened a folder and flipped a page. "Well, its location helps us a bit, being in the old military junk yard. If all works out, we won't have to open the main gate like we did in the other sites to get our equipment in there. I've scheduled the engineer group four to enter tonight to see if they can salvage a backhoe and a crane. If successful, group two will then enter and move the core unit to a new location and bury it. I'll then have to reenter Glie and get new injector readings to calibrate our trajectories."

* * *

A wet and dreary day greeted Maia the morning she was going to see Stephanie for the first time since the accident. She looked across the room from her and thought she saw someone seated in her chair by her vanity. She jumped a bit with the thought that someone was in the room with her. She fumbled with her glasses as she sat upright in her bed and looked back at the seat.

A sweater lay draped over its back, but no one was there. She released her breath and settle back in the bed with a thud.

Setsu opened her eyes and looked at her feet. It had been two months since the operation and she had finally been allowed to sleep on her back. It had been the first restful night's sleep she had in a while, yet that last dream she had startled her awake making her spine shout at her. Now there was some large man seated at the foot of her bed staring at her.

"Hello daddy," she said with a slight smile. "What brings you here to the dark side?"

"My little cherub, what else?" the man said with a tear rolling down his cheek. "How are you honey?"

She looked at the ceiling and huffed. "Intact again," she coldly stated. "So, I take it that Uncle Claudius confirmed it? I am the reincarnation of your daughter here in Glie?"

He shook his head. "No."

Setsu looked down at the man at the foot of her bed. "No? But..."

"And yes..." he added with a lopsided smile. He sighed and leaned over to rest on the foot board of the bed. "You look just like her too as a young lady... It's not surprising that Claudius did not recognize you at first… I should have come to Glie sooner."

Setsu glared at him with confusion swelling in her mind.

Spring on a field of golden wheat - She spun and began to run through it as she saw a young boy and another girl giggling ahead of herself dashing away towards a huge red barn. The sun nearly blinded her as it reflected off the shiny chrome side of the newly installed metal silo that stood next to the building. She ran up to it and saw her reflection.

She saw herself. Not the girl she had been seeing - not Maia - but a tall blond, blue-eyed and tan farm girl in her early teens.

_"Leda! You're it!"_ the girl and boy were calling to her as they scampered into the barn to hide from their big sister. She reached her arm out to follow.

Water - She was now in water, and her head was pressed into a rough and dusty pillow that was deflating quickly. She was looking at a terrified face beside her in the seat of a vehicle that she could also see was rapidly filling.

_"Honey!"_ she called out as she reached for the girl beside her. A hand took hers.

Setsu looked at the hand in hers. She followed the arm it was attached to back to the face of the man.

"Honey?" she repeated in a whispered, not really meaning it in the way it had come out. "Oh my god... what happened?"

Plato's lip quivered a bit as he slid his chair behind himself so that he could be beside her as they held hands. "I lost you both that night," he told her.

"What makes you think you got either of them back?" Setsu snapped as she removed her hand from his. She stared at him briefly. "So, I have the appearance of your late wife?"

Plato nodded.

"And the memory of your daughter... what a joke!" She rolled to face the window. "This 'Sinner's Rock' has a warped sense of humor!" She watched the rain pelt the glass.

The water was rushing quickly up her legs and chest as she felt her mother struggle to release her seatbelt. When she looked back over at the woman beside her, she could see her golden hair floating and waving in the water as she struggled with the clasp. She was gesturing for her to try her door.

Maia pulled on its handle. The pressure outside it was still holding it shut, and the window refused to lower. It was getting harder to concentrate. She gave the door a hard tug. It finally opened as the outside pressure had compensated with the interior of the vehicle. But then they struck the bottom, and the door shut again.

The world went black. She gave one last attempt to breathe.

She opened her eyes. She was still in water... or at least something like water. It seemed thick to the touch as she slid her fingertips together in the mire. Whatever the stuff was, she seemed to be able to breathe it. She looked around and found herself within a world of fuzzy pink and blue strands that hung all around her. She seemed to be floating within this strange seaweed.

There was a pounding. Her ears hurt. It was as if someone had taken the world she now found herself in and squeezed it hard. It struck again, and again. Now she heard cracking above her. She tried to swim up to it, but found she could only move side to side. Something inside her was telling her that she had to try and get out of this strange place. She reached the nearest wall she could find and started pounding on it.

Another crack was heard from above. Suddenly the liquid she was in seemed to loosen up. It was now just water! She gagged, unable to breathe this new fluid she was in. She tried to use the strands of fiber around her to climb up towards the breaks she could now clearly see above her, but found they had no strength and merely yanked down and tangled her. She let out with a frothy scream.

Setsu blinked as she rolled back and stared at the ceiling again. "Oh god... the old cabin in the western woods near the wall.

Plato looked at her confused. "You mean the old Haibane cabin we closed down a few years ago?"

She nodded. "If you seek answers, you'll check the back storage area."

* * *

Two men, looking like astronauts, unlocked The Corporate Seal that had been placed on the door of the cabin. Once used as the third Haibane hosting site in Glie, the building had been abandoned and replaced because of it proximity to the wall was interfering with the landings of the seedlings. The old floors creaked as they traversed the large living room area and headed for the back towards the kitchen and storage.

They slowly opened the larder and held out a scanning probe. "My god, look at that..." the first man said.

The cocoon was black, not the gray-white it would normally be. The second man attempted to reach out and touch it, but the first stopped him and shook his head within his helmet.

"The tensile strength of that thing is only about that of wet papier-máché... it's amazing that it held all that water all these years."

"'Bet it smells nice," the other man stated as he knocked on his helmet. He pressed a button on the back of his gloved right hand. "Search One to base..."

"Base One, go ahead," he heard reply.

"Janice, we have confirmation of a dead cocoon here," he said, "still intact... it shows signs of fracturing along the top. It seems to have healed itself afterwards."

"Interior scans are inconclusive," the other man stated. "There was a body, but it looks like it may have dissolved... We'll need a sample team here prior to cleanup."

"Understood... clear out and lock up," she told them. "We'll get what data we have ready for your download."

Ptolemy sat at his lab desk and read the findings he had just been handed by his boss. He closed the file and handed them back. "I'm so sorry Aris... If we had known..."

Plato shook his head. "It's not your fault, nor is it anyone's... I will calm my suffering, or I will be useless to this Corporation. How is that for philosophical bull?"

"Pretty good," his friend said as he got up and followed him to the door. "You should write that down somewhere."

"I think I did," Plato grumbled. "Let's get some coffee."

* * *

Setsu looked at the ceremonial robes that had been laid out on her bed. They all seemed to be much too large for her, which was surprising since she was slightly taller than the Old Communicator.

"These belonged to your predecessor, as it belonged to his predecessor," Washi explained. "It is up to the wearer of these clothes to adjust them to their height and needs.

"This guy must have been into basketball before coming here!" Setsu quipped. "It looks like he added this middle part to stretch it. Damn, and I'm terrible with sewing..."

"You'd better save everything you take off it, sweetheart," Gabrella snickered from the far wall. "They'll tear you apart, since this is such a thankless job!"

The Communicator stood between Setsu and the intruder. "What are you doing here, demon?" he ordered as he brought his staff up.

"She is here on our orders," Ptolemy said as he and Iris entered the room, "though she was supposed to come in with us, not run ahead and start a ruckus!"

"Oops," she coyly said as she slid along the wall to the opposite side of the room from the Communicator's staff. She then became less impish and more on guard when another person entered the room - a tall man in a dark business suit.

"Amethyst?" she asked. "What is a Celestial doing here? Are we expecting a visit from the Phoenix Guild?"

Ptolemy shook his head. "No, Amethyst is here because this involves the workings of the Treaty of Set. Since we do not have a direct representative from the Attic attending, he will make sure that these proceedings are as nonpartisan as possible."

"As a matter of fact, it would be best if you were not here at all, Communications Director Gabriella," Amethyst stated in a cold impassionate way, "but the reps from The Corporation insisted." It made the demon shiver slightly.

"It doesn't matter," she snorted. "We both are not allowed here at the same time anyway. I'll just wait outside." With that she slid through the wall.

"Is she allowed to do that?" Iris griped.

"Actually, there's no rule about it..." Amethyst stated. "Shall we proceed?"

Setsu mostly stood and listened as Ptolemy and the Old Communicator explained once again the position of Greeter of the Flightless and Communicator for the Scar's Village, and her responsibilities when it came to giving those who she met their options. She was informed that it would be a life-long commitment that she would be responsible for, and that no one could remove her from her position without consent of the Phoenix Guild. As they did this, her appointments of office were placed upon her or handed to her. She felt like a poorly dressed doll by the time someone asked her "Now, do you have any questions?"

"Yes, how do I see through this thing?" she asked while tapping on the mono-eye that she now bore on her face. The three stripes that had been painted on her cheeks itched as they dried, and her back was beginning to hurt her again. The third time she hit the unit was the charm as the interior was opened like a lens iris and she could now see the world from the unique view of a Communicator.

"Whoa!" she said as the room swayed a bit. She looked at everyone and saw an odd sheen emitting off their bodies, especially Ptolemy and the strange observer Amethyst. His nearly blinded her and she was forced to look away. "Is this the way it's supposed to work?"

"It will become easier as you get used to it," Washi told her. "Remember, it is but a tool to assist you and guide you if you wish it to do so."

"So I still have freedom of choice?" she asked.

"Yes and no," the man in the business suit stated as he stepped towards her. She wasn't ready to look at him at such a range, so she slid her mask to one side so that she could at least see him through her left eye. "The mask does have a warning system in it - it will tell you of any important decisions of the Renmei or anyone possibly higher in authority."

"Higher authority? It's bad enough I have to deal with some of you guys... what higher authority?" She suddenly found the business suit leaning in on her personal space.

"Me, for one," he grinned. Even though it wasn't a menacing one, the way he presented it made Setsu jump and she dropped her staff. She snorted and pushed her mono-eye back over her face.

"Well, this is interesting," she remarked from behind the mask. "This does help me see things clearer." She reached down and snatched back her staff and turned to exit the room.

"It tells me quite well when you're full of bull," she added as she departed for the outer hallway.

She quickly moved to a nearby room and settled as she waited for the enraged Celestial to storm by. 'Who the hell does he think he is?' she thought to herself as she pulled the mask off and stared at it in her hands.

The blank eyeless holes - that's what made this Halloween mask creepy to Maia. Disney Princess indeed - she had wanted to be a Sorceress, like her favorite anime character Lina Inverse. But when her mother had found out that she had been sneaking over to her friend's house to watch the 'teens and up' rated videos with her friend Sara, the seven year old girl had been admonished for it. Her punishment was for her mother to choose her holiday costume... and Snow White was now leering back at her. She slipped the vac-formed plastic mask on and attempted to do a 'Dragon Slave!' incantation in front of her mirror. The effect was less than satisfactory.

"We sure came a long way from this disgusting mess, didn't we?" her reflection asked. She saw a strange one-eyed blond girl staring back at her.

_"Have we?"_ Maia asked from behind her own mask. _"I seem to remember this being my worst Halloween ever, mommy. Why did you do this to me? Why this?"_

"You are mistaken, dear. I am you, not your mother." The image removed her mask and smiled at the young girl.

_"You look like my mommy... you act like her too."_

The mirror image snickered. "I wouldn't have pushed Snow White on you! Though I did kind of liked the goddess the year before... she never knew it was because of 'Ah! My Goddess'..."

Maia giggled. _"So, you _are_ me?"_

Setsu tapped her head. "Up here at least you are. I still don't quite know why, but you are."

_"Why do you look like mommy?"_

Setsu shook her head. "I don't know..."

_"Maybe it was the accident?"_ an older teenaged Maia asked from over at the computer table.

"Possibly, I don't know," Setsu said. "Maybe it has something to do with my own... accident."

_"That was no accident!"_ Setsu looked up, surprised to see an adult Maia glaring down on her - at least she thought is was her, since the girl she had known as Maia had never made it to full adulthood. _"Why did you jump Mother? Why did you jump?"_

Setsu stood up. "I AM NOT YOUR MOTHER!" she yelled at the vision.

"Yes you are," a small voice called from behind the adult Maia. When she stood aside, a child was sitting on her bed. But this was not the bed's owner, not by a long shot. She was Asian in appearance with an almost doll-like quality to her. "But your soul continued on. Your daughter's did not..."

Setsu looked up. She was being shaken by a red hand.

"Hey kid, wake up before that Celestial gets in here!" Gabrella was telling her. "Beelzebub's horns, you really zonk out when you do that, don't you?"

"Who was that? Who was that girl?" Setsu asked not seeming to care that it was a Demon-Goddess shaking her.

Gabrella smiled a wicked grin. "Answers you want, and answers you will get!" she chortled. "All sides considered, all things being equal, okay?"

Setsu nodded. Gabrella's grin got deeper. She held out the pinky finger on her right hand and gestured for Setsu to do the same. She locked hers around the smaller, and they both vanished from the room.

Setsu looked around herself. They were back in the junkyard.

"If the answers you seek are within Sinner's Rock, then maybe you should find it again!" the demon stated as she too looked around. "Now where the heaven did they bury that thing?"

Setsu saw a big wet bare spot where the white marble block had sat before. Odd tracks around it seemed to lead out of the yard and down the path away from the Scar's Village. She started down it with the demon close behind.

"Ah, it looks like Ptolemy's boys have been busy fixing some of their toys," Gabrella said as they found a small clearing in the woods beside the path where two large machines sat near a patch of freshly dug and moved dirt. Setsu put on her mask and examined the area. She saw no one, though something in the ground was shining a green aura through the dirt. She looked over her shoulder to tell the demon to follow, but was shocked at the crimson image the mono-eye gave her.

"Damn it lady, don't stand so close when I'm wearing this thing!" she griped as they entered the clearing. She held her hand out over the ground as the mask guided her towards the aura.

"How far down is it?" the demon asked. Before Setsu could answer, Gabrella had slid into the soil as if it were merely air. A moment later after Setsu had seen a red spot move near the green one did Gabrella pop back up.

"It's only about six feet down," she reported. "I wonder why they just didn't destroy it?"

"Are the humans keeping secrets from you demons now?" she heard behind them. When she looked back there was no one there. She looked down at Setsu and saw her looking up in the trees.

"That's one weird looking bird," she said. Then she saw the odd look on the demon's face and her red glow dim. "What is it?"

"Describe it!" she whispered in a hiss.

Setsu stood perplexed. "What?"

"Describe it... PLEASE!"

"Ooh, she said 'please'! That must be burning her tongue!" it cackled from the high branches.

Setsu gave Gabrella a bothered look. "How many birds do you know who can talk?"

"Quite a few!" she snarled. "DESCRIBE IT!"

Setsu lifted her mask, as the image she was getting was too bright to be seen clearly by the mono-eye. "Umm... it is white with a long neck... a small round-ish dark head and a long colorful tail..."

The demon looked pale when she looked back at her. "Phoenix!" Gabrella hissed with little air. "I dare not look upon it! Why are you here? Am I to be punished?"

The bird laughed and cooed. "Of course not, Miss Gabrella… As a matter of fact, you're doing me a great favor by bringing Miss Setsu here."

Her eyes darted across the ground as she tried to comprehend what the bird had said. "Pardon me?" she asked a bit incredulously, but only slightly. "I did your bidding? In what way?"

"By bringing Miss Setsu here as I said!" it exclaimed with a flourish of its wings. Now Gabrella could see in its shadow on the ground where it was and she flinched. "At what time has this poor child not been wronged while being here? She is ostracized by her own home mates, town's peoples… even heaven and hell decree they do not want her. She deserves her own victory, Miss Gabrella. She does indeed!" The bird ruffled its feathers and settled down on the branch it was on.

"Fine," she sneered without turning. "Is there anything else I may do for you?"

The bird preened itself as it thought. "Yes, indeed!" it exclaimed, making Gabrella wish she had not asked it that. "She will never get enough of a signal with that much soil between her and the stone. Take that steel tube from over there and insert it into the ground until it strikes the top of the stone. Then replace the soil to hide its presence."

Gabrella sighed as she saw what the shadow figure was gesturing towards with its wing. There next to the edge of the clearing was the edge of the junkyard. Resting on the ground was a long heavy looking cylinder that made the demon nearly laugh at the bird's choice of tubing. "The barrel of a tank?" she bemused. She shrugged and flipped her fingers at it.

The tube rose above them and spun about. Its muzzle pointed at Gabrella where she examined its flash-suppressor. She drew her fingernail across it and severed a chunk off.

"What is that for?" the bird asked as she brought the barrel overtop the fresh soil.

"We need a clean surface when it makes contact with the stone, so I took the paint off," she said as she made it start to spin. She then sent it down into the center of the fresh dirt, which heaved large plumes up around itself and through the hollow barrel. Finally the tube made a clang and stopped spinning. She trimmed off the remaining excess and tossed the leftovers back into the junkyard.

She glanced over at the young former Haibane only to find a soiled glaring stare looking back at her.

"Ever considered taking up gardening?" Setsu grumbled at she knocked off the built up dirt from her robes. "So what am I supposed to do with all this?" she asked the bird.

Gabrella gestured at the soil as most of it returned to the top of the mount it had come from, obscuring her handiwork. "Well, you're sensitive to it now, so all you should have to do to make contact with the stone is sit over the barrel."

"Barrel?" Setsu asked. "You mean that pole you just stuck in the ground?"

"That would be the barrel, yes..." Gabrella said as she wiped her hands. "Shooting all that memory and mind... stuff... up your..."

"AHEM!" the Phoenix said, reminding her that it was still there. The demon picked up a board that had been where the barrel had drilled down and placed it back where it had come from. She then bid Setsu to sit on it.

"Mediation cleans the soul, but in this case, get ready to have your soul rocked!" she told her as the girl sat down on the plank.

Setsu crossed her legs and adjusted the mono-eye. "I guess it's too late to ask if this was safe or not..." she quipped.

"I would say that you are probably correct," the little oriental girl said from the top of a bed that was now in the clearing with them. But then the trees vanished, leaving the bed, the girl and Setsu alone in the universe.

"What, no Maia here?" she asked her host. The little girl shook her head.

"There is no longer a need, since she is now wholly within you. My name is Miho." She bowed slightly to her. Setsu felt the urge to bow back.

"Where are we?" she asked the small girl.

"We are in memories," Miho told her as the bed faded and a grassy field replaced it. "This is my favorite. This is my home."

Setsu watched as a vision of a small Japanese village surrounded in rice fields materialized around her. She could see children running along the paths that sectioned off the patties from one another.

"There I am, with my brothers and sister," Miho said as they walked down the slope of the hill towards the nearest home. "I loved them so... and I miss them."

"What happened to them?" Setsu asked as she raised her mask and sat it on the top of her head.

"Nothing but age... But I died and came here," Miho said, "as did you and your mother. I see her plan worked."

Setsu stopped walking. "Plan? What plan?" When she turned to look at Miho though, she found an older woman of around twenty.

"Your mother was not delayed in her journey to the afterlife like you were," the older Miho said, "so she would have been able to jettison her temporal vessel."

"What are you talking about? OUCH!" She jumped as an old pair of fingers pinched her. Miho now looked as if she were the grandmother to the whole world.

"Your shell that you call your Haibane is nothing more than a temporal vessel, much like the stage in a rocket," the elderly Miho told her. "First is your Human self, your first stage if you will, then your second stage, what would become your Haibane self if it were to fall into places like Guri..."

"Glie..."

Miho smacked her on the head. "This is important - listen! Your mother realized that your cocoon was flawed, so she returned briefly and gave her discarded shell to you, at the sacrifice of her own freedom!"

Setsu needed to lean against the wall for a moment, but found herself falling through it. The small hand of the child Miho helped her back up.

"So that is why I look like my mother... but what about her freedom? What do you mean?"

Miho sat down on steps that lead into her house. She then saw the reaction Setsu had as she looked at where she had passed through the building. "It's my memory, so I set the rules." She gestured for Setsu to sit down beside her. As she tentatively did, she found a solid surface to hold her.

"I'm sorry, but it has been so long since anyone was able to stay here with me," the young girl whimpered. "When your mother came back, we though that because she had given up the use of her temporal vessel for you, that she would be here with me forever. As it was, her original objective came searching for her when she had not arrived. While they were pleased that she was willing to sacrifice herself for the soul of her child, they could not forgive her for the sin of abandoning her temporal vessel in such a way. They took her away for judgment."

Setsu gritted her teeth. "Sin!" she spat. "What sin was there in trying to save me?"

Miho placed her teenaged hand on hers. "It was not a sin to try and save you," she explained. "It was a sin because of her giving away what was not hers to give away - her temporal vessel. She was not licensed to do so."

"LICENSED!" Setsu stood up and began to parade back and forth. "What are we, cars! Do I have a license plate stuck on my ass or something! What kind of heaven or hell came up with THAT idea!"

"Actually, it is part of the Treaty of Set that we in the Phoenix Guild monitor that dictate the use of licensing all aspects of life and their powers."

Setsu saw Miho, now as the woman again, bent over deeply bowing towards someone behind her. She turned around to see a bald man in a white, gold and red kimono standing behind her.

"Who are you?" she asked him.

"Phoenix," he replied with a strange smile.

Setsu cocked her head. "I thought I was just with the Phoenix."

"You are," he smiled.

Setsu crossed her arms mimicking the man. "You don't look like a bird," she stated the obvious.

Setsu momentarily dropped her mono-eye over her face and indeed saw the same glow off his body that she had seen with the bird. She then planted it back on the top of her head again. "Why then did you sound like a female out there as a bird, but now show yourself as a man?"

The man tapped his chin and looked skywards. "That is a very good question... I will have to ask my children when I get back." He chuckled a bit and returned to his smiling self again. This gave Setsu an unnerved feeling towards this man.

"He is the Phoenix, believe him!" Miho exclaimed as she continued to bow towards him.

"Fine then," Setsu said still less than impressed by this cue-ball before her. "What happened to my mother, and what's all this license crap all about?"

"Miho has given you the basics of what transpired," he said. "The Heraldic Council removed her from this time and space to await her judgment for her actions that day. No one has ever freely given their temporal vessel away in such a manner. The situation is unique indeed!"

"It was made only more complex when you were given a vessel that was to be examined and judged upon arrival there," old lady Miho added. "Her trial will determine that outcome."

"Where is this trial? I want to be there! I want to testify!"

She saw the old man shake his head. "You don't understand... this is the trial. Your life and upkeep of that vessel in the holy site of Guri was and is the trial. The judgment is about whether she made the right choice by giving you her flawed temporal vessel."

Setsu sat back down as her head spun. Had she condemned her own mother's soul by her actions - Her twice attempts at ending her life? - By not having her Day of Flight? - By being rejected by... hell?

"So tell me," he asked as he sat down beside Setsu, "where did they get your name from? Tell me about your dream..."

Setsu looked up at him. "My dream? What does that have..."

"Please, if you would appease my curiosity," he smiled.

She sighed then chuckled. "It's strange... now that I can remember both my former life and my Haibane dream... I was named Setsu because it means ardent... in my dream I was perusing after my favorite adversary in an online game that had become real in my mind... I believe I said 'grim determination' to those with me when I described it... we had a scholarly member at that time who finally gave me my title. He said that I had been 'ardently in pursuit'."

The man nodded. "Interesting... and did you ever discover your name's true meaning?"

She gathered up her legs and clutched her knees up to her chin. "I did... during the trial of my boss from the collections house I worked at. Setsu also means acute... in my case, reaching a crisis rapidly." She began to cry. Child Miho tried to comfort her.

"Acute also means 'keenly perceptive' and 'sensitive'..." the old man said as he donned a pair of reading glasses and read from a dictionary he produced from out of his sleeves. "I believe the latter is what you are displaying now."

Setsu drew in a deep breath and composed herself. "What does this have to do with my mother?"

"It tells me that your fellow Haibane chose your name wisely," he stated as he put the book away. "You see they chose a name that fit your flawed vessel more than for its contents. Because you are inside it, you suffer from its sins as well as your own."

Setsu sat back and stared at the man. "Sins? My mother had a sin?"

The man reached over and touched her on the forehead.

_"Jeb! JEB! Oh dear god Jeb, wake up!"_

What was this? The view was blurry and streaked with wet tears. The image rocked from looking above at an open ceiling, to a crying girl, to a boy on the ground at her knees. He was blankly looking up, and red crimson was everywhere.

_"What is going on in here!"_ a burly man yelled from the doorway.

_"Daddy! Daddy, Jeb fell out of the hayloft! Daddy, he fell out..."_

_"How many times have I told you kids that this isn't a playground?"_ the man thundered as he came over to the prone child. _"Oh god,"_ he trailed off as he bent down and placed his fingers against the boy's throat. _"Leda, get your mother,"_ he grumbled.

_"We were playing hide-and-go-seek/tag..."_ she was crying. _"He was trying to avoid my hand... I'm sorry... I'm sorry..."_

_"LEDA!"_ the man bellowed. She looked over at the mountain she knew as her father and saw the tears rolling down his face. _"Get your MOTHER... PLEASE!"_

She got up and ran out of the barn past Setsu and the old man.

"Where is she going?" Setsu asked. "The house is that way..."

"Perhaps you should follow her," the old man suggested.

_"Leda, no! LEDA, NO!"_

Setsu ran around the grain silo and found Miho holding her face. Near her was the body of Leda prone on the ground like her brother's. They heard a scream and a woman came running out of the house from the opposite end of the work-yard.

"I found her climbing the ladder on the side of this thing and then she jumped when she was nearly at the top," Miho said with a quiver in her voice.

"Why didn't you try and stop her!" Setsu yelled at the teenaged Miho.

Adult Miho composed herself then bowed to Setsu. "I am sorry, but remember, we are in a memory. I can not change a memory."

"But now you see why your vessel is flawed," the man said as the woman reached the body on the ground. A pair of farmhands followed her. "It also possibly explains your own troubles with this sort of thing?"

_"Leda! LEDA!"_ the woman called out.

_"M-mother?"_ she moaned.

Setsu shook her head. "I don't get it... that's twice the distance of the hayloft... how could she live through that when her brother... my uncle... Oh god, Uncle Jeb! I remember her telling me about the uncle I never knew..."

"The answer to your question is simple," the old man stated. "This silo is new, and the soil around it is still soft, while the floor of the barn is hard and compacted. But even so, the fact of the matter is, in your interview with Miss Iris, you said that you had never considered suicide until you had come to Glie, when the truth was that part of you had."

The shock of seeing her future mother lying on the ground nearly dead sent Setsu's head spinning. She had to stand back as Leda's father stormed around the silo with one of the farmhands. _"What are you trying to do!"_ he shouted at the fallen girl in the dirt. _"Add insult to injury!"_

"Way to go, Mr. Sensitive," Setsu grumbled. "I never really liked Grandpa... let's get out of here."

The old man leaned over to Miho and touched her forehead. The world became her village again. Setsu pulled the mono-eye mask off her head and sat down with a thud on the step of the house.

"So what now?" she asked to the old man. "Is there anything we can do for my mother? She tried to save my life - twice!"

"Actually only once," the old man said as he paraded back and forth in front of the girls. "The second time she was trying to save your soul... I will have to see... she has three major strikes against her as it is. She does have a good chief council standing for her defense... your Uncle Jeb, who went through the same Haibane training that you did, but your mother missed. You see, that was another thing that bothered the Heraldic Council - why was this rather obvious flawed licensed vessel going to heaven in the first place, when it too should have landed in a holy site for the training?" He scratched his ear and began storming back and forth.

Setsu stomped her feet. "Mother, why did you do this to me!" she yelled. When she opened her eyes she found that the old man was gone. She looked over at Miho. She was standing beside her home looking beyond it. Setsu cursed herself and stood up. She moved beside the little girl to see what she was looking at.

The sky was dark and ominous. The ground was showing signs of large wet spots appearing all around them, though nothing seemed to touch them.

"This is my day," Miho said. "This is how I died."

"You know how you died?" Setsu gasped. "You have to relive it in here?"

"No, I do not - not anymore at least. I just thought you would like to know..."

Setsu bent down to the girl's side. She seemed content to remain a pre-teen at the moment. "Miho, how long have you been here?"

She watched as the ground around them became drenched in the sudden downpour. "I believe that The Corporation listed me as Girl 194. There have been thousands since..."

Setsu stood dumbfounded. "Incredible... wait... how do you know about The Corporation?"

Miho waved her hand across the dark wet view. A window almost like a computer screen opened over top the dreary scene.

"In here, you can see anywhere," she said as they looked out at the world. The view circled around the still form of Setsu seated above Sinner's Rock. It pulled away to show an aerial view of the area in and around Glie. It then moved far enough away that the walls started to appear. But just as the outside areas were about to be shown, Glie vanished, and the view became another place, cluttered with farms and roads, then cities as the view pulled further and further away. Clouds flashed by and the features of the ground merged into one as they zoomed over the planet.

Miho closed the view. "You see, I am not without... vision and knowledge. I am just very alone here. I get the occasional visitor, but only once in a while, when a soul or vessel passes near enough to me. Your soul was here for a while, between the time your cocoon failed and your mother's sacrifice, but you probably do not remember that."

Setsu shook her head. "No... no I do not."

"Tell me," Miho asked as she took her hand and guided her towards an overhang out of the rain, "if I had hatched properly, what would my name have been?"

Setsu huffed then smiled. "Do you remember your cocoon dream?" she asked her.

Miho nodded as she looked at the rising waters of the river. "I was swept away by this storm, and in my dream, I relived it. I died by a flood."

Setsu leaned back and thought. "There are many names that mean flood... Demizu... Satto... Hanran..."

Miho smiled. "Umm, yes. Hanran... that would have been my name. It has the most appropriate true meaning."

"Meaning? What does Hanran true meaning mean?" Setsu noticed a sinister look cross the girl's face which caused her to step away.

"Hanran means many things," they heard coming from the inside of the house. "Flood is one thing..."

Gabrella stepped out of the doorway. "It also means Insurgent... Insurrection... Mutiny... Rebel... and Uprising!" She then took a step back and looked a bit squeamish. "Plaa! What is with all the water?" she complained.

"Demon, what are you doing here?" Miho challenged her, much to Setsu's surprise.

"I saw the Phoenix vacate your body," she noted gesturing towards Setsu, "so I decided to drop in and see what's going on in here. Besides, I've never been inside one of these before, let alone one that's inhabited..."

Young adult Miho took a defensive stance. "You are not allowed nor permitted to be here. You must vacate immediately!"

"Why? Why must she leave?" Setsu asked confused by the reaction Miho was giving the demon.

Gabrella waved her hand about in a nonchalant way, dismissing the spirit's threat. "It's a part of that Treaty thing... neither side is supposed to be here because of it being a neutral zone of sorts."

"Then what about the Heraldic Council?" Setsu angrily blurted.

Gabrella dropped the aloof attitude. "The Heraldic Council? They were here?"

Setsu looked at her with a shocked expression. "You didn't know? They took my mother!"

Miho stepped between the two of them, now fully crouched down in an attack position. Setsu saw that the demon was now showing signs of extreme anger as she resonated in a red energy and her eyes were blazing flames. Her hands had become claws and she spread her wings wide. She then roared in a rage.

It then all seemed to go away. She still seemed genuinely miffed, but her outer hostility seemed finished.

"How dare they break the treaty..." she mumbled as she swept her wings around herself. "Does the Phoenix know this?"

Setsu snorted. "It would seem so... after all, he was here while we were discussing it all."

"What is she up to?" Gabriella pondered. "That bird is a real pain... I suggest that we leave this place - as long as you have found everything you wanted to know."

Setsu looked at Miho. "What about her?" she asked the crouching girl.

Gabrella looked down at her. "Well?" she asked.

Miho stood up and bowed towards her. "I have no temporal vessel," she replied.

Gabrella looked back at Setsu. "Nope... I can't do anything for her. Let's go."

Setsu glared at her. "I will leave when I want to!" she snarled.

Gabrella glared back at her. "Fine, but don't be long. I can't guarantee just how long it will be until the workers arrive to finish their work here." She then vanished.

Miho touched her arm. "It will not matter... they know that you were here," she told her.

"How?" Setsu asked. Miho tapped her face beside her eyes.

"The mask!" Setsu ran around to the other side of the house to pick up her mono-eye and slipped it on. She looked up and saw Gabrella being held against a tree by the staff of the Old Communicator.

"LET HER GO!" the girl on the wood board ordered. She picked up her own staff and knocked the other away.

"Setsu!" Ptolemy yelled.

"BLOODEAGLE!" she shouted back. "You all can call me Bloodeagle! And we were here at the request of the Phoenix, so you can bring it up with him... her... IT!"

All eyes turned towards Amethyst. He was looking towards the sky.

"She's telling the truth," he said. "Let the demon go."

"Oh, that must have burned your tongue," Gabrella growled in a mimic of the words the Phoenix had used on her. She glared at the others, especially at the old Washi and spat. "Be careful around these people child," she warned the new Greeter of the Flightless. "They are hiding things from you, and now you know why."

"What do we know?" Ptolemy barked. "What should we know?"

Bloodeagle slid her mask off her face and wiped the three stripes off her cheeks. "My mother for one thing," she angrily told them. "And the Heraldic Council taking her away for saving me."

Ptolemy slumped back. "Did Miho tell you this?" He found a staff pointing at him.

"Uncle Claudius, YOU KNEW!" she shouted at him. "You knew about my mother! You know who is inside that thing!"

"Child, of course I know about Miho," he sighed. "Of course I know about Girl 194 being in there... That is one of the reasons why we don't dare destroy a Sinner's Rock, wherever they may be. They maintain the balance of the holy site while guiding those who come here, and protecting them when something happens like what did happen between her and yourself."

She took a step closer to the scientist. "And what about my mother?"

He shook his head. "Honestly, I did not know about her until you mentioned just now about her. It does explain many things... like why you look like her... why you have her DNA…"

She spun her staff around and rapped on the ground hard enough to snap a wing off the ornamental top piece. "Iris, would you please accompany me to my dwelling in the Scar's Village? I will need a guide on what I need to do."

Bloodeagle found a staff blocking her way. She glared at the hand that held it out.

"I can not allow you to continue," the Communicator said. "In the short time you have had this position, you have violated so many rules..."

She knocked his staff aside. "Tough, or did I not hear someone saying that this was a position 'for life'? - That I could not be removed save for an order from the Phoenix Guild? Well I was just with the Phoenix, so there! And from what I can see, this place could use an independent eye!" She flipped her staff up causing the Communicator to have to juggle his. She snapped her finger towards Iris as she stormed out of the clearing and started back up the road.

* * *

Lady Bloodeagle looked up from her perch atop the stone that sat now where Sinner's Rock was buried. A vision had run through her of fading halos all across the Glie area.

"Is something troubling you, my dear?" a bird in the trees asked her.

She shook her head as she raised her mono-eye. "What does it mean?" she asked the Phoenix. "Why are so many halos showing signs of flight?"

The bird preened its wing. "What makes you think this is wrong?"

Bloodeagle contemplated her mask for a moment. "Are you saying that this is natural?"

The Phoenix ruffled her feathers. "Hardly, but still not unexpected… A storm is brewing, and I believe that there may be an exodus soon."

"Exodus? From Glie?"

"Guri..."

Bloodeagle tossed a stick at the bird. "WHATEVER!" she shouted. "Explain to me what is happening!"

"A change..." it said as it examined the piece of tree she had thrown that was now dangling above its head. "A time is coming that will judge whether the Treaty of Set is a viable document, and shall cement my control over the two factions at its heart. You simply need to report what you see to those sides it affects. The Guild shall do the rest." It then flew off and vanished in a puff of flame.

Bloodeagle snorted. "What is that bird up to?" she grumbled to herself. She dropped her mask down and concentrated.

The small house in the rice fields appeared again to her. She looked around and again failed to see its occupant. The children were playing off near one of the patties as usual, but she knew she could not talk to them directly - after all, they were only Miho's memories.

She heard a sound coming from the inside of the dwelling. "Miho?" she called out as she looked inside. The mono-eye picked up a faint image of someone being there.

"Please, not now," she heard. Something wasn't right. Miho sounded like she was weeping.

Bloodeagle slid a door aside. Miho was crouched over covering her face. Her always perfect mop of black hair was a bit mussed up. Her kimono seemed a bit loose.

"Miho, are you okay?" Bloodeagle asked as she reached down and lifted her up. A dark swollen eye greeted her and a bruised cheek. "Miho!" she exclaimed.

The girl rolled into a ball not wanting to be seen. "Please Miss Maia, I asked you not..."

She found herself being wrapped within the robes of the Greeter as Bloodeagle held her close to herself. "Shhh," she said as she rocked her back and forth. Miho broke and began to cry.

"Who did this to you?" the older woman asked the girl. Miho wiped her face and rested her forehead on her shoulder.

"I... did this to myself," she whispered.

Bloodeagle sat back and looked at her, raising her head with a lift of her chin. "Miho, why?"

"There is a sensitive in the Haibane," she said. "A demon hunter..."

Bloodeagle rolled her eyes. "Ha! You're telling me," she said. "That Koi kid is the talk of the town, what with him being born within the wall and everything. What about him?"

"He is a sensitive! I can be out of here when he is around." She lowered her head. "At least, I can when he lets me..."

Bloodeagle sat back on her haunches. "Are you telling me he did this to you?"

Miho flayed her hands about. "No, no, no! That is not what happened... I tried to visit him... twice... but both times something happened. At first he is gentle, and we merge. But then he begins to react badly. It is like he is a different person. This last time he jumped another person and began fighting him... but each time he would get hit, I would feel the blows with him... it was as if I were being used as a shield."

"Why didn't you just ask me, silly? I would have let you out with me."

Miho sighed. "You are not that type of sensitive... besides, you already have a guest within that vessel, remember?"

Bloodeagle rocked Miho. "Don't remind me," she grumbled. "So Koi attacked someone? Who was it? A human? Another Haibane?"

"A demon," Miho said as she touched her eye making the bruise disappear. "Miss Gabrella's brother is in Glie right now."

"Koi attacked a demon and I didn't get to see it!" Bloodeagle yelped as she yanked on her mask and adjusted it. She looked about to see what she could see.

She looked about the town from her unique vantage point. Her view flew through walls and people. It cleared through the hearth of the mid-town bakery and out into the town square. She sensed where the incident had happened - beside the library, near the newspaper building, close to the hospital... she then spun time into reverse to see those gathered for the fight.

"Whoa! He jumped out a window!" Bloodeagle shouted in surprise as she saw Koi start his attack on the Haibane-looking Jester. "I guess I could see this coming, what with him taking up with that visitor from another Holy Site. I still can't believe they held that news from us as well... maybe I should open up a tabloid of my own... Ooow! That hurt!"

Jester had been laid back with a right-cross to the chin. As he started to recover, Koi had leaped for him. By sheer luck, Koi's eye slammed into Jester's open palm as he fell on top of him. Bloodeagle adjusted her view to see if she could sense Miho in the action.

"Ah, there you are," she said as she saw the now familiar light glow of the spirit within the boy, but she could also see something else - a clash between his own power and hers.

"What kind of weird energy is that?" Bloodeagle wondered to herself. "It's as if it runs opposite of normal flow... YAAA!"

She had not expected the cold shower from the bucket of water Rakka had doused the two boys with, nor had it touched her. But the reaction that had come from Koi pulled her away from him.

"Wow... look how mad he got," she whispered, almost in awe of what hatred was spewing forth out of him. She felt shocked when he tossed Rakka's hand aside. That was until she saw the haymaker she applied to him for the gesture.

"It won't go away," she heard Miho whimper. She peeked out from under her mask to see that the young girl could not remove the glowing red mark to her face where the Haibane had slapped Koi with such force that she had decked him. She returned to the mask's view and rewound it slightly to the strike.

"Jeeze, she ejected you!" she remarked as she could now see the inner energy being sent out the side of Koi and into the ground. "That is one powerful Haibane."

"She is one without sin," the voice of the Old Communicator said in her mind.

"Umm... you would know that, wouldn't you, 'brother'?" she grumbled. "Have you been monitoring what I've been seeing?"

"I have," she heard him reply. "Allow the Observer to handle this situation."

Bloodeagle looked about the view at those present. A woman had just come up behind Rakka and told them to follow her. "Oh, it's her again," she said as she cocked her head from side to side. "What is it with that doctor...? I can't get a reading on her."

"Most of the Observers wear a device that prevents us from seeing inside them," Washi explained. "It might prevent us from seeing into their thoughts, but it also makes them stand out a bit."

"That's for sure... Have you noticed the odd occurrences with the halos of the Haibane?"

There was a slight grumble - the Communicator wasn't used to the rather non-volatile discussion he was having for once with his subordinate. "We are... aware of the situation. We believe it is an anomaly caused by the lights in the sky last night."

"Along with that strange ship that crashed as well?" Bloodeagle shook her head as she sat back. "Too many things are happening around here. The Phoenix was saying something about an exodus."

Washi stared at the readings his mono-eye was giving him. "Has he..."

"...she. It was in bird form..."

The old Communicator sat down. "So, Phoenix was able to enter the shield even though it is ionized... or more likely it was here before the ionization." He looked across his desk at Ptolemy. He in turn looked at the starship Captain seated beside him.

"Exodus?" Captain Strom asked.

"It sounds like the bird is up to something," Ptolemy agreed.

"I think I need to contact Gather Damon," Strom said. "We've got to get things back under control."

oOo

_**Play the RPG Sadako's Well on AnimeMangaWorld! – Email for the address**_

_**Join the Renmei – Visit the C2 Community and Discussion Forums of Charcoal Feathers of Glie & Surrounding Territories here on FFN!**_

_Note: The two little pieces of newsprint that Maia read are actual pieces that fell out of my Great Aunt's Bible, and where she got them is a mystery, so who owns the copyrights are unknown._

Setsu (from the FFN FanFic "Darkness") ©2007-2011 TeaRoses – Used with Permission

Character Name 'Bloodeagle' and "Lady Bloodeagle' ©2007-2011 S. E. Nordwall – Used with Permission

The Phoenix Guild, Phoenix ©2007-2011 C. Ruester/Brightblade Productions – Used with Permission

Captain Roy Strom, Doctor Abigail McManus, The Observers, Gather Damon ©2007-2011 Denivan Media Services – Used With Permission

Gabrella ©2007- The Lugia Project/DMS – Used with Permission

Sara Montgomery, Mike Montgomery ©2007-2011 The Moon Child Project/DMS – Used with Permission

Phoenix design, Adam (Atom/Astro), Toby (Tobyo) ©2007-2011 Osamu Tezuka/Mishi/Tezuka Productions

Disney Princesses ©2007-2011 Disney Enterprises

Lina Inverse, Dragon Slave (Slayers) ©2007-2011 Hajme Kanzaka/Rui Arizumi/Kadokawa Publishing/TV Tokyo

Ah! My Goddess ©2007-2011 Kosuke Fujishima/Kodansha

Characters from Haibane-Renmei ©2007-2011 Yoshitoshi ABe

Haibane-Renmei: CORPORATION ©2007-2011 The Golden Halo Project/DMS

This story written entirely on an HP Jornada 680 using Windows CE, PocketWord and a 16MB CompactFLASH card.

Edit & Remastered 1106.24


	10. An Observer's Report

**.**

**2 0 1 1 - R E V I S I O N**

**-O-**

**H A I B A N E - R E N M E I :**

**C O R P O R A T I O N**

Chapter Ten

**An Observer's Report**

By R. A. Stott

He stepped into the room from the northern corridor carrying the small bundle in his arms. "Hikari… are you here?" he asked the empty room.

"She hasn't returned from work yet," he said to himself as he stood there a bit befuddled. He grabbed a light blanket from the bed, found the rocker and sat down. "Blast it all." Kinza shifted his load and thought back to earlier that day.

* * *

"Security Officer's log… week one of my - sabbatical - here in what they call a Holy Site named Glie… I find it interesting watching the comings and goings of these people who live here in this dilapidated school building. I can understand The Corporation's wishes to restore and rebuild this place, seeing that they seem to be having a population boom. I spent the last few days in the rear quarters of the place looking at the history of those who used the school in the days before the Haibane came. Structurally, the building is collapsing and foundering back there, and no sane Haibane, human or Tomassamassa should be allowed entry. But, no one ever claimed I was completely sane anyway, and it still requires patrolling for landings and seedlings."

Kinza gimped along through the dark crumbling back end of Old Home peeking into the musty rooms. Hikari had started the day with him, but needed to head out for an afternoon of cleaning the back of her bakery she worked at in town. Before she had left, she had told him that sections beyond a set of collapsed rafters was considered out of bounds, and no one would search back there.

"That won't stop me though," he continued with his report. "Some of these areas have not had inspections done in years, if ever. I have already found sections where the repair and rebuilding crews will need to take extra care when entering, seeing that there are many structural problems caused by age and growth within the building."

He shifted a beam to one side and found a hallway behind the wreckage that lead back into the final rear quarter facing southwest. Sunlight could be seen shining down through more junk piled at the end, as well as a few more rooms to either side that would need looking into.

The electronic patch he held in his paw, the lone remaining piece of his uniform that he was recording his report into, beeped at him. "Mr. Kinza, where are you?" it asked.

"Ah, the good doctor," he smiled as he climbed over the pile into the cavernous hole. "I'm reconnoitering through the back side of this building I'm in."

He heard her sigh. "Mr. Kinza, you have a concussion and a possible fracture in your leg. Why are you out of bed?"

"Abby, you should know better than that," he laughed. "I'm already climbing out of my fur. And you did say I should exercise."

"I said that you should do leg lifts while in bed!" she admonished. "Look, we've had another incident."

He stopped for a moment. "Serious?"

"Possibly… Koi attacked Jester."

Kinza sat down on a dusty old bench that was beside the pile of roof parts and rubbed his sore leg. "Great. Any reason why?"

"He doesn't remember. But the demon hunter instinct is obviously coming to the fore."

He leaned back against the wall and sighed. "Do you need me?" he asked.

"Not really, since the town's folks have not seen you yet… More importantly though is that you have the only linkup with S.A.M. that's operational while the shield is ionized."

"Ah," he smirked and tapped the patch. "Did you hear that S.A.M.? Link up with the doctor's communicator and tie into your core systems."

"Understood," the patch replied.

"Anything else doctor?" he asked.

"Get to bed," was her short reply. He snorted as he looked about the darkened corridor he was in. What streamers of sunlight that were coming in were barely enough to discern where the hallway actually came to an end, but he could see that it actually turned off to the left. He shrugged to himself and started down into the southwest wing. He pulled out a flashlight and inched his way to the rubble that made up the end of the corridor. It seemed to be made up of ceiling material. He saw a door just beyond the left turn and a stairwell to the right. He climbed over a few rafter sections and examined the door to the left.

It held shut at first. He put a bit of leverage behind it and it shifted slightly. It then thudded to the floor and started to fall inwards with him still holding onto the handle. But then the knob detached from the door. The remainder of the wooden hulk swung away and began to pivot oddly. It then vanished in a cloud of dust.

Kinza stood there momentarily with the knob in his paw. Finally there was a resounding crash and a gust of musty wind that blew his fur back. He whipped the flashlight into the room and looked about. He found that the reason the door had vanished was because it had fallen down a whole story to the first floor. It laid splayed in pieces across the collapsed wreckage of the former second floor, which was also down there.

"They're trying to rebuild this?" he mumbled to himself as he looked about with the flashlight. "They'd have an easier time just tearing it down and starting from scratch!" He raised his torch up and found that at least the ceiling was still intact.

"Humm… third floor on this end is still up there," he told his patch as he continued his journal. "Hopefully the forth is as well… It looks like something leaked down from up there and ate the floor out here… I really need to get a scanning rod on this."

It was rare that anyone, Haibane or human, had ever ventured towards the forth floors of any of the buildings, since these rooms closest to the roof tended to be hot in the summer, drafty in the winter, and leaked mercilessly in rain and melting snow, so no one had been in them for years. And due to the conditions of the hallways leading to the end units to the south end of Old Home, these wings were considered abandoned.

Kinza snorted. He rubbed his nose and shook his head. He made his way back to the stairs up and gingerly started to climb them.

A large section of outer wall had collapsed, exposing the stairwell to the outside. As he had worried about, the southwest corner had indeed lost a section from the first floor clear to the forth. He noticed how the stones and wood near the base of the collapse were splayed away from the building and not inwards or piled in a heap.

"I see a sign of something bursting the building on this end, as the wreckage is spread outwards in a radius pattern," he reported to his patch. He tested the still-remaining inner guide rail for strength and continued up the stairs.

Each step creaked under his feet, settling them back into their seats as the weight of the Tomassamassa pushed them back down after years of expansions and contractions caused by the changing seasons. He pushed the one double door open at the top and stepped onto the landing. Unlike the floors below, where the rooms were on either side of a central hallway, the third floor seemed to have larger single rooms with the hallway along the outer perimeter. He flicked off his flashlight as windows were allowing in plenty of daylight, if not a bit more than expected as two of them were missing their glass and frames. The stairwell had opened to a corner where the hallway formed an L – in front of him was what would have been a crossway that attached this wing to the other on the southeast corner, much like the north wings were built. But since the clock tower faced it, the section only acted as a bump-out from the rest of the building. He checked the frame-less window and saw the roof of what someone had told him was a Lecture Hall below him.

A bird chirped from its nest above the center door of three serviced by the false crossway. He looked back towards the main hallway that lead back towards the center of the complex to his left and found a clutter of old shutters and maintenance supplies rotting away that blocked access to that direction. He chose to check the three rooms in front of him first – less climbing was always good with a gimpy leg, especially now that it was aching from all that climbing he had just done.

He took a moment to ease his sore bones. From the center window in the short hallway, he looked out over the roof of the smaller and shorter separate building below him at the courtyard. He could see the work being done on the north end of Old Home, and the balcony to the guest room he had spent the last few days in. Below it were children with wings and halos playing dodge ball.

Behind him were the three rooms. He rapped on the first door to see how sturdy it was. The first strike pressed in the wood, and a mushy crunch was heard.

"Oh ho… dry rot," he grumbled as he pressed a finger into the surface of the door that had once been solid wood. Years of exposure had removed all the moisture from it, making it extremely brittle. The top section made a crispy sound a bit. He tried the handle. The brass hardware was seized stiff. He held onto the knob while placing his paw on the center of the door and pushed.

The door cracked and split in two. He found he could fold it along the middle like the door on a school bus or a closet.

"I don't think it was designed to do that," he humorously told himself as he opened it wide. He then reached in with the flashlight and prodded the floor. He tapped it with its hard metal end and got a solid sound. He stood up and gently placed a foot on it and added weight and pressure. Since it did not seem to want to fall out from under him, he stepped forward.

"I've entered the room near the caved in second floor," he told his patch recorder. "Unlike the other rooms, it has a smell all its own. The others were musty, while this one almost smells brackish or rusty."

He lit the flashlight again and looked about into the darker areas of the room. He found that the floor seemed to be covered in a reddish-brown crust that crunched slightly as he stepped about. He aimed the light into the back. With a southern face to this end of the building, windows should have been in this room. If there were any, something was blocking them.

"What in Belkar's beard is that," he said as he found what looked like black drapes dangling from the ceiling. He tapped it with the end of the flashlight. It was semi-hard and fractured easily. He leaned over, grunting from some residual pain from his crash landing, to look at the underside of this odd looking sculpture.

"Ah… this was a vessel of some sort," he murmured to himself as he saw that the lower back half was rounded, and that the upper half had originally formed the rest of the sphere, but now draped over it along its burst line.

"Oh damn…"

It dawned on him just what this was. He had been briefed on these prior to starting the satellite seeding, just in case… he saw one first hand.

"A cocoon… But they said they decompose after breaking open…" he murmured to himself as he stood up and looked around it.

"They do, as long as they break normally."

Kinza jumped, and it hurt. His bruises and contusions throbbed as he looked around for the voice that had just told him that. What he found was a man in a cloak with wings on his back and a halo over his head, but he also bore a mask over his face.

"SCRAGG! Who the hell are you!" the Tomassamassa shouted and cursed in pain as he bore his nails in case this wasn't going to be pleasant.

"Observer's code one - one - zero - one," the man replied.

Kinza stood up and looked at the man curiously. "An Observer? I kind of thought you looked a bit big for a Haibane."

"Not true," the man said as he stepped towards the old cocoon. "I spent many years here in Observation just as you see me… of course without the mask and all…"

Kinza stood back. "You were stationed here? You FAKED being a Haibane?"

"Code one - one - zero - one."

The Tomassamassa shook his head. "Blasted Observer's code… One - one - zero – one… You're allowed to talk to me, but I'm not allowed to ask too many questions because I may know you."

"Or will know me," the man corrected. "Either way, I was known here as Thido."

"Never heard of you," Kinza grunted. "I take it that you were stationed here?"

"Bing!" his patch rang, warning him that he was asking too much.

"Oh shut up S.A.M.," the masked man said in disgust. "Yes I was. As a matter of fact, you can ask Kana about me."

"She knows you?" Kinza asked as the man leaned over to look over the burst shell.

"In a round about way… she is following my guidebook on that clock project of hers."

Kinza examined the wings and halo. "Well, I must say, size not withstanding, you do seem to have a remarkable set of Haibane accoutrements to your disguise."

The man raised his arm and flicked his fingers through the halo, which shimmered and wobbled. "It's a holo-suit, much like you own 'Mr. Ed', he told him. "The wings are solid-matrix, while the halo… well, as you can see… isn't."

Kinza shivered. The mention of the 'Mr. Ed' holo-suit gave him the fidgets. He used this uncomfortable device when he needed to venture somewhere that required him to look like one of the locals, as long as they looked reasonably human at least. The fact that it cloaked his ears always made his itch return. He turned and watched as the man bent down in his examination of the fossilized cocoon.

"Huh," the man mumbled through his mask. "It makes you wonder who this was, doesn't it?"

Kinza shook his head and joined him in examining it. "Who this was? Someone was in here?"

The man looked over at the smaller alien. "You were briefed on how Haibane come to the Holy Sites, weren't you?"

Kinza scratched his ear. "Briefly briefed," he admitted. "Remember, I wasn't supposed to land here."

The man nodded. "Were you now? Are you sure?"

Kinza glared at him. "Damn it, you're from the future… you should know better than to say that."

"S.A.M. didn't complain," the man stated.

"You told him to shut up," Kinza reminded him.

"And has that ever stopped him?" the man asked bluntly. "Ah, here it is…"

"Here is what?" Kinza looked at what the man was picking at on the folded section of the upper half.

"This is the crack that depressurized the cocoon," he told him. "The L.C.L. reverted to water… the Haibane drowned. It's a shame. I wonder where the soul went?"

Kinza jumped back, again in a bit of pain. "Soul? What do you mean?"

The man looked around and found a chair lying sideways. He righted it and sat down. "Cocoons start out as containers where a soul and its vessel arrive in the Holy Sites. Once the vessel is complete, the Haibane can hatch. But if the vessel dies within the cocoon, the soul is left behind and must find a hiding place that is safe or risk dispersal."

The man pulled out a stick and waved it about. Kinza looked at it eagerly.

"A scanning rod! I was just saying to myself that I wished I had one here!"

The man looked at the ball on the end in his palm. "No signal… the soul failed to find a home and dispersed. Such a shame." He spun the rod around and handed it over to Kinza. "There is a reason why you are here, Mr. Kinza."

The Tomassamassa took the device. "Really… This wasn't an accident?"

The man crossed his legs and leaned back. "Oh, it was an accident, but not for you. You were not expected. You were not planned… at least not initially."

"Excuse me?" Kinza asked as he tweaked the rod. The man noticed and shook his head.

"Don't be rude," he said of the quick little scan he had just been given. "I'm assigning you a mission while you are here, Mr. Kinza."

"A mission?" he asked. "What…"

"One - one - zero - one," the man pointed out with a wave of his finger. "Assume also that the person you are talking with could be anything, from a lowly yeoman…" The man then rolled up his holographic right sleeve exposing the shirt underneath that had bands and braids wrapping its cuffs.

"…To an admiral," Kinza finished for him as he saw the piping and the symbol that it represented. "Admiral Thido?"

The man laughed. "Damn, that sounds weird," he said as he planted the chair back on the ground. "Your mission is pretty much what it was all along – observation. But I want you to take more than your average outside look at things."

Kinza's ears twisted slightly. "What do you mean?"

The man sat back again. "As a non-human here, you have a unique opportunity, Mr. Kinza. There are multiple forces at play here in Glie… humans, Haibane, the Attic, the Basement, The Corporation, even the Phoenix Guild and the Denivan. All want control of these places… all want power over the other… and what happens in here affects out there."

Kinza cocked his head. "Even the Haibane?"

The man shifted a bit in his seat. "They want control of their destinies, don't they? They are completely at the mercy of the attic and the basement when it comes to their outcome here. As for the humans, well they want more than just protecting the Haibane. They would like more freedom, even when they don't say it out loud. Resent events even show some cases of another ugly human trait – bigotry and resentment towards the Haibane. As the generations pass, and the reasons on why the humans are here in the first place wanes in their memories, much like their holidays of Christmas and Easter, they start to forget what their true meanings or purpose are. What the attic and the basement want is pretty clear, but whether they are getting a proper signal on what is actually happening here is a question that needs to be answered. The basement has grievances that need to be addressed – LEGITIMATE ones at that. And the Phoenix Guild and the Denivan are technically on the same side, but don't trust one another. And most of The Corporation just wants to return things to the way they were before they created this mess in the first place."

Kinza scratched his head. "Umm, aren't I part of one of those groups?" he asked.

"Yes and no," the Admiral responded. "You are the best independent choice, since you technically are an outsider to all sides present here. Your mission will be to recommend just what direction the holy sites should head in. Remember, what happens here does affect out there beyond the walls, and further as well."

Kinza snorted and started to walk in a tight circle while shaking his head. "You want me to make recommendations that keep these sides from bashing each other over the halos? Are you nuts? And what about you? With that rank mark, you're obviously with the Denivan as well."

The man crossed his arms. "Not exactly… affiliated, yes, but not a full-fledged member. And my affiliation here is moot. In this situation, I'm an Observer first, Denivan second. Besides, you were recommended by both sides in the future."

"Both sides? Didn't you just tell me that there were more than just two sides?"

The man nodded and held his hands up. "Then let us say that the two more important sides suggested your involvement."

A snapping sound caught Kinza's ears. It sounded like it was coming from the room next door.

"And the reason why you will be the best judge for this just called to you," the Admiral told him as he gestured behind himself at the wall between the rooms.

Kinza glared at him. He slowly walked out of the room and looked down the hallway at the next door. He glanced back into the room only to find that the Admiral was now gone.

"How did he do that with the shield ionized like this?" he grumbled. He scanned the room and snorted. "What was that sound?"

He jiggled the handle of the center door and found it already ajar. The door creaked open and let the daylight flow in. He found a musty room with few items scattered about, and what looked like an old ball sitting on a chair off to one side.

The ball shook.

Kinza waved the rod over the orb as it vibrated.

"Scragg… it's a baby… how the hell does a baby Haibane hatch out of one of these?"

"In most cases, they don't," replied the voice of the Admiral from his patch. "And landings this small are usually missed by The Corporation's scanners."

Kinza sat down with a thud as he stared at the ball. "You've gotta be kidding…" he grumbled. "What should I do with this thing?"

The patch remained silent.

He looked around the room. He noticed round marks on the floor about the right size as the ball on the chair. He scanned them and watched the readout.

"Residue of calcium… carbon… amino acids… damn it, look at them all." He snorted as the ball rocked again. He touched a paw on the top of it to steady it.

He pulled it back quickly as he felt moisture. His fur showed droplets in the available sunlight. He brought the scanning rod over it again and took another reading.

"The internal pressure is down in just the last few minutes… oh, tell me that this isn't the way they fail to hatch, with a weeping from their cocoon…"

The life sign inside the sphere was ebbing slightly.

He tapped the patch. "Admiral, L.C.L. to fluid ratio is now eighty percent and dropping. What should I do?"

The communications tool remained quiet as he watched the rocking start to subside from the sphere. He sat up on his haunches and examined it for a moment.

"Scragg," he swore and extended his claws on his right paw. He then plunged them down into the soft surface of the ball and twisted. He removed a chunk as if slicing the rind of a pumpkin and dropped it to one side as he tipped the hole over to dump the fluid out. He watched carefully as a pair of feet slid out of the opening.

He quickly gathered the infant before it could drop to the floor. But it suddenly acted as if jammed in the hole. He looked in and found something wrapped around its neck.

"What the…" he mumbled as he began to slice larger chunks out of the ball. It finally released dropping the child into his left paw. "What is this? A shawl? Haibane come out clothed?"

He didn't have much time to wonder about the wardrobe as the baby was blue from a lack of oxygen. He laid it in his lap and started CPR.

"Ah, you're a girl, aren't you?" he noted as he caught his breath. He gently put his mouth over her nose and sucked the fluids out of her sinuses. He spat them aside and returned to blowing air into her lungs while pressing his thumb against her chest. In a few moments, the girl coughed and gave a short cry. He sat back and looked down at her lying in his lap and sighed. He tapped the patch and coughed.

"Personal log: I have just been given a mission… and a bundle of trouble. I am now the guardian of an infant Haibane. I am told they are rare. Great… just what I need."

The infant squirmed a bit as it shivered slightly. The wet cloth it was in wasn't helping any, so Kinza removed it and his shirt he had borrowed from one of the boys. He popped the girl's head out of one of the wing slits in the back and wrapped the rest around her. He then gathered her into his furry chest and stepped out of the room.

The courtyard below was now empty. It was mid-afternoon, and any of the Small Feathers he had seen before were probably inside taking naps. He thought of contacting Dr. McManus, but then he remembered her saying that she already had her hands full of problems.

"Gotta report," he mumbled. He tapped the patch. "Kinza to Dr. McManus."

* * *

"What were you thinking?" Nemu barked at Koi as he sat and stared at the floor. "It is forbidden for Haibane to fight one another! The Renmei will send the Toga!"

Each point she drilled into him only made Koi flinch further and further into a haunch. "I don't know… I really don't know…" he kept saying. Rakka sat beside him rubbing his back and trying to deflect each verbal blow her enraged elder was spouting his direction.

"Nemu, please!" she finally shot back at her.

She looked at Rakka and took a step back, taking in a deep breath in the process. "You're right," she calmed. "I just want to know why, that's all."

"I'm sure we all would," Katherine said as she stepped into the room. "Are you all right, Koi?"

He nodded slightly while continuing to glare at his feet. "What did you do to me?" he asked her.

All eyes turned towards the visiting goddess. One hand came up in front of all of them halting all questions.

"STOP!" Dr. McManus commanded and sternly looked at all around her. "This will be conducted in an orderly manner. As head of this hospital, I will ask the questions."

There was a quiet "Yes mum," from those in the room. The doctor then turned towards Katherine.

"Okay, please explain his comments," she asked her.

Katherine cleared her throat and pulled on her garments. "When we rescued Koi from the wall, I attempted to erase any memory of his encounters he may have had while inside it without proper protection."

"Encounters?" Kana blurted, which received a sharp and loud snap of a pair of fingers. She then found the doctor's hand pointing at her nose. It rose back to the doctor's face as she hushed her.

"You were protected," Katherine stated to the silenced Haibane. "Koi was not against those who dwell within the catacombs."

"That end of the wall is also the least protected," Rakka added, which drew a look from the doctor, but not the scolding Kana had received.

"Correct," the goddess agreed. "I felt that the torment that he had been put through should be best let forgotten, but I was superseded by my superiors."

Again the doctor's hand was held out to the questioning faces in the room to quell any out-of-place queries. "Why?" she asked sternly.

"Why?" Katherine asked a bit puzzled, which also drew questioning looks from the others.

"Why were you overridden?" the doctor re-asked. "Your original course of action seems reasonable seeing where he landed."

Katherine stepped to one side and sat down in a chair. She sighed and shook her head. She looked up and asked, "Where is the demon?"

McManus gestured towards the door at the far end of the room. "Sol and Jester are in my office."

Katherine nodded. "I am bound by my position to uphold the Treaty of Set, as you know," she told the doctor, "even when it would seem we have an unfair advantage."

McManus shrugged. "I sometimes wonder just how balanced that treaty is anyway," she commented. "So Koi is an advantage?"

Katherine sat back and drew in another breath. "I was ordered to return his memories because he is a sensitive… a demon hunter."

McManus stepped towards Katherine. "Yes, we know," she stated, drawing an odd look from those in the room. "But how is he a demon hunter? He is a Haibane. Demon hunter is not a class of the Haibane, it is a human class."

Katherine stared at the young man seated across the room from her. "Indeed. When I was told that, I questioned the fact as well. But my superiors were adamant. The vessel delivered to this holy site is that of a demon hunter. The memories I had removed had some of this information removed as well."

"What memories? I don't remember being a demon hunter," Koi moaned. "I don't remember anything from… before I arrived here."

"Not all memories are forthcoming," the doctor explained. "Many are dormant, like programming… like PROGRAMMING!"

Those in the room watched the doctor as she started to walk back and forth. "PROGRAMMING! When he came to this world, the demon hunter program came with him! Isn't that sort of thing supposed to be deleted when transference occurs?"

"DING!" a com unit announced. Before Katherine could answer the doctor raised her hand to stop her. "Information prohibited!" S.A.M. added.

"No it isn't!" Rakka called out. "We already know about it!"

McManus and Katherine look at her oddly. "Explain," the com asked.

"That's right!" Kana agreed. "You were attacked while we were down there fishing him out of the drink!"

"Attacked?" the doctor asked as she pulled one of those strange sticks out that Rakka had seen being used on their visitor back at Old Home. The doctor waved it over her and looked at the ball it ended with. "There's no signs of internal damage… how were you attacked?"

"It was when we were trying to get Koi onboard the raft…" Rakka remembered. "Something tried to get into my head. I'm not sure what it was, but we were at the bottom end of the cavern where the protection is the least."

"Yea, then we hear 'LEAVE HER ALONE!' or something like that shouted by him," Kana added.

"And then the pain stopped," Rakka finished with a meek voice. She looked up and saw the doctor looking back at Katherine.

"Do you follow all of the Treaty's rules?" she asked her.

Katherine scowled. "Of course," she said with a bit of anger in her tone for having been asked such a question. She noticed this and excused herself with a quiet "pardon me."

"Then you are not allowed to lie, are you?"

The doctor watched her reaction. She saw the goddess squirm a bit.

"That is correct. It would be a sin to lie."

McManus sighed and loosened up a bit. "Then tell me, knowing what you know, and knowing that you probably didn't know any of this beforehand, do you think they knew of his ranking before all this?"

Katherine blinked. "P-possibly… but why would you think that I wouldn't know that?"

McManus smirked. "You wouldn't have removed his memory if you had known. And it could mean that the attic is planning for something bad. Why else would they deliberately keep the memory of a Demon Hunter in the body of a Haibane? Does that answer your question S.A.M.?"

"You have a call waiting," was the computer's response.

* * *

"Hello! I'm back!" Hikari called as she entered the lower entry of Old Home. "Mr. Kinza? Are you here?"

She entered the Visitor's Room and found him snoozing wrapped up in a blanket in the rocker. She smiled at the furry sleeping tiger… bear… whatever thing seated there. She turned to enter the kitchenette.

"Hey," she heard. She turned to look back and saw that his blanket had slipped down.

"We've got a little problem here," he whispered. He then lifted the empty sleeve of the shirt he had draped over the infant's head off.

Hikari nearly leaped out of her shoes. "Where… where did you get that baby!" she squeaked.

"Baby?" she heard. She nervously looked over her shoulder and saw that the housemother was peeking out of her apartment at her. "I thought I heard something before, but I thought it was just that strange furry thing in there."

Kinza snorted as he cradled the child. "She's a Haibane. I found her cocoon up on the far end's third floor."

Hikari looked closer at the baby. "She's a Haibane? I never saw a Haibane baby before."

"I was told that they are rare," he said as he allowed her closer. He then saw the housemother stagger over between them and the bed. She looked at the baby and crossed herself as she sat down with a thud on the mattress.

"Oh, the poor child… Oh the poor poor child!" she moaned as a tear streamed down her cheek.

Kinza looked at Hikari in confusion, but she seemed to not know either why the housemother was distraught so. "Why? What's the matter?" he asked her.

"Well don't you see?" she wailed. "So young… how will it know its dream? How will it know its dream!"

"Most of the Small Feathers barely knew their dreams," Hikari noted as her eyes grew wide.

Kinza leaned back confused by the banter between the two ladies. "Umm… what?" he asked.

"We senior Haibane use our cocoon dreams as a way to determine how we are named," Hikari explained. "They say it also is used as a way to determine our day of flight, when we learn the true meaning of our names."

"Ah, yes… I read about that in my information packet," he grumbled as he adjusted the baby. It grunted and whined slightly. "She seems a bit fidgety all of a sudden."

The housemother covered her mouth with her hands as she gasped. "Oh mercy… she'll never survive! She'll never survive!"

"Well you're overly optimistic!" Kinza snapped at her. "Why won't she survive?"

His patch beeped. Just as he tapped it, the baby let out a cry.

In the doctor's office, everyone looked at one another as the wail filled the room.

"Umm… Kinza?" McManus asked.

"Ah," the com unit replied as the bleating continued. "Hey Doc, I know you've got your hands full, but I really need your help here."

McManus adjusted the ear-piercing shriek out of the communication. "Kinza, is that a baby I hear?"

"It's a Haibane baby, yes," was the reply. "I found her while I was surveying the southern wing."

"Oh god, no!"

Everyone looked at Nemu, who seemed white as a sheet. "Mr. Kinza, when did you find it?" she asked.

Kinza looked around for the clock on the dresser. "Umm… a couple of hours ago… it looks like three or four hours ago."

Nemu shuddered. "The wings… Wings will kill the baby!"

Kinza's attention was suddenly drawn to the feathery protrusions on Hikari's back.

"Oh scragg," he said as he quickly undressed the child and looked at her shoulder blades. Two throbbing lumps were there, dark at their peeks and rolling about at times.

"I take it, they tend to come out rather explosively?" he asked as he saw the stress they seemed to be exerting on the infant. Hikari nodded, not able to say anything. "Great… Doc?"

McManus was gathering supplies. "I'm an hour away, Kinza. Time to put some of your training to work I'm afraid."

"Understood," he said as he whipped off the blanket that was around them. He spread it across the bed after rousting the housemother and placing her in the rocker. "Hikari, boil some water in a small pot, please?"

"Water?" she asked as she stutter-stepped towards the kitchenette.

"Yea, I know… it sounds like just something to keep an expectant father busy, but I really need it," he said as he examined the child and scanned her again. "Hurry!"

He began to massage the lumps with the palms of his paws. "There's my little Koni… There's my little Koni… shhh… Old Uncle Kinza is here… shhh…" The child seemed to settle a bit and the movement slowed.

Hikari returned with a pan of water. Kinza looked at it and continued to sooth the infant's back. "Is that boiling, or just hot?"

"Err… ahh…" was her response. Obviously it was just hot.

"Boiling, please," he requested. "It has to be as hot as possible."

She gave a nervous nod and scampered back into the kitchenette. "What did the doctor mean by your training?" she called back as she turned the flame up high on the stove.

"Heh… as a security chief, I may be the first to arrive at a situation that requires medical assistance, so I'm also a trained medic. By the way, do you have a first aid kit?"

Hikari looked at the small carrier on the shelf above her. What with all that had been going on recently, it was pretty picked over.

"A small one," she called to him.

"Is there any rubbing alcohol in it?" he asked.

She brought it down and rummaged through it a bit. "There is something… iso… isopro…"

"Isopropyl alcohol, yes… please bring that and some clean towels."

Kinza looked back and saw the housemother staring at what he was doing. She was no longer crying, but creepily watching.

"Hey, are you able to help?" he asked her. She blinked and looked up at him. "I'll need you to take over here for a moment as I prepare."

"Prepare? Prepare for what?" she asked.

"Never you mind right now, just come over here and take over rubbing her shoulders," he said with a gesture towards the child.

"Here are the medical kit and the alcohol," Hikari said as she entered the room. "The water still isn't boiling yet."

Kinza shrugged and took the kit. "Watched pots and all that," he said as he took a quick inventory of the supplies as the housemother took over for him on the baby. "Ah, good… cotton swabs too. How about those towels?"

Hikari dashed back into the kitchen and returned with a handful. She found Kinza with his right paw up at his face, and he was examining his forefinger.

"Come on… what's keeping you?" he said with a touch of strain in his voice. "Come on… pop it!" He looked about a bit sheepishly.

"What are you doing?" she asked him. She then saw a gray claw-nail protruding from his paw.

"Well, this is damn embarrassing," he grunted as he grabbed it with his left paw and clutched it close to his belly and pushed down on it. There was a discernable crack heard. "OW! DAMN, that's a pain doing it that way!"

He raised his paw and pulled the old gray nail sheath off revealing a white and extremely sharp-looking claw under it.

"Yes, Tomassamassas come with built-in scalpels," he grinned and he looked through the kit again. He soaked a cotton ball in alcohol and began to wipe down the newly exposed nail. "How's that water coming?"

Hikari found the pot now in a rolling boil. She grabbed it and brought it in.

"Ah, that's better!" Kinza said as he took it and placed it on the table behind them. He then stuck the claw in it and grunted.

"WHAT are you DOING!" Hikari nearly screamed as she watched him par-boil his finger.

"You need the nail hot for this," he said with a sneer. "Logic would say that it is the pressure of the wings trying to come out that causes a baby Haibane to die at this stage, right? It was probably bad enough for you older ones, correct?"

"Oh, please don't remind me," Hikari shuddered at the memory. "So you plan on cutting them out?"

"Just two little incisions to relieve the pressure," he said with obvious pain in his paw. "Which reminds me, turn around for a moment."

"Huh?" she asked, but complied. She then felt his paw on her back between her own wings.

"Okay… straight up and down along the shoulder blades, a few centimeters away from the spine… Okay, ready to go. Get me another cotton ball with alcohol on it, would you please?" He snatched a towel and shoved the hot, wet paw into it and kneeled down beside the bed moving the housemother to the side.

"Right… swab," he asked. Hikari gave him the alcohol drenched cotton ball in his left paw. He wiped the baby's back. It shivered from the cold.

"Okay, I'm going to make this quick – be ready with the other towels," he warned. Before either woman could react though, he had taken his hot white claw and neatly sliced two small slits into the infant's shoulders. Two small sets of feathers sprouted out in an oily goo of wing grease and blood. He reached back for a towel and saw the ladies just staring at him.

"Hey! Hey!" he barked. Hikari finally reacted and handed one to him.

"I'll need another swab," he asked as he mopped up the mess and pulled slightly on each wing to get them to deploy fully.

"There's so few feathers," Hikari stated with a blank stare.

"They need to be cleaned, or they'll be stained," the housemother said. "I'll get the wing-bath."

"Wing-bath?" Kinza asked, a bit amused by the name. "Well, this must have worked… the skin sealed up around the wings already, didn't it little Koni? Humm? You were a good girl!"

"It's amazing, it didn't even seem to hurt her," Hikari said a bit stupefied.

"Umm, that was why I had to have the nail hot," Kinza told her as he found her shall had dried, but now with her wings deployed, there was no place to put them. He unfurled a towel and wrapped her in that instead. "It wasn't as hot as if I wanted to cauterize it, but the added heat did help with the incision. There's my little Koni!" He lifted her up and rubbed his big nose against hers.

"Koni?" Hikari was now being amused by the strange way the alien officer was treating the infant.

"Ahem, err, yes… Koni," he said as he handed her to Hikari and started to put his shirt back on. "In my language, it means Angel… it also happens to be my sister-in-law's name." He found his patch and tapped it.

"Kinza to Doc McManus…"

"Here, Elb. What is your situation?" it replied.

He started rummaging through the medical kit when he noticed his sharpened claw was grabbing things, like the patch. He found a small cork and stuck it into it. "Her wings are deployed. She is safe."

"What about the fever?" he heard someone else ask. He looked at Hikari, who had placed the back of her hand against the baby's forehead.

"I don't feel one, Nemu," she replied. "Maybe the way he did it lessened the strain."

"Lessened the strain?" McManus returned. "Kinza, what did you cut with?"

"I'll explain when you get here," he huffed, not wanting to say just then. "What's your ETA?"

"We have Old Home in sight. Approximately fifteen minutes."

"Understood," he replied as he tapped the patch closed and scanned the child again. "What's she mean by a fever?"

Now Hikari was getting into the 'play with the baby' mode, as she was now gently bouncing her in her arms. "Normally there's a fever when the wings come out," she said.

"Geeze, that's nasty," he commented as he started to gather up the scattered bits of the operation. "Remind me not to become a Haibane."

"The bath's ready," the housemother called from the kitchenette.

"We're going to clean your wings, aren't we Koni?" Hikari bubbled over the baby as she headed through the drapes in the doorway. But when she looked up to see where the bath was set up, she found a dark green void instead.

"Give us the baby!" something cackled. "Give us it's SOUL!"

An evil looking harpy-like thing trudged up a path that seemed to enter this void towards her. Its eyes swirled as it reached out to snag the infant from her grasp. She screamed.

She felt herself being yanked back. She looked up to see the guest room again in front of her. She looked behind herself at the kitchenette's entry and saw Kinza in it.

"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING!" he was bellowing. "WHY IS THERE A DEMON'S GATE IN THIS BUILDING! YOU ARE IN DIRECT VIOLATION OF THE TREATY OF SET, AND I WILL FINE YOU IF YOU DO NOT DEPART THIS INSTANT! **DO – I – MAKE – MY – SELF – **_**CLEAR!"**_

"But… but the infant… we must have the infant…" something wined in front of him.

"The infant is under MY CARE," Kinza barked. "Under orders One - One - Zero - One!"

"FAAH! One - one - zero - one!" the demon spat.

"Do you want me to invoke it further?" Kinza threatened.

"No… no…" was a very meek reply. With that the green vanished and the kitchenette returned with a very confused old woman looking at the Tomassamassa.

"What was all that shouting about? You'll scare the baby!" she scolded him.

Kinza then found Hikari clutching his shoulder and shaking like a leaf. "What was that? What was THAT!"

"That's a good question," he said as he felt her shivering. "Shhh, shhh… don't worry, they weren't after you, only the baby, for some reason. What the hell does hell want with Koni?"

The doctor and her procession of Haibane were turning up the path towards the small bridge outside the walls of Old Home when the Tomassamassa's yelling was heard rattling down through the entryway.

"Now what?" she muttered as she quickened her pace.

"Koi? KOI WAIT!" she heard Rakka shriek. As she looked back, a blur passed her by to her left. When she looked back at the gateway, she could see the boy entering the courtyard.

"He should try out for track!" she said astonished by his speed.

Bloodeagle looked out from behind her mask to her right.

"What is going on down at the Home?" she grumbled as she continued to meditate on top of Sinner's Rock. The mono-eye gleamed in the sunlight as she aimed it in that direction.

She saw the boy darting around the ground as if hunting something. When she adjusted her view, she saw the second soul within him.

"Miho, what are you doing?"

She dove her mind into the core of Sinner's Rock searching for the small house she knew was there. She arrived outside it in a heavy downpour. Standing on the porch was the bald man who she had seen before.

"Phoenix, what are you doing here?" she asked the man. He acted as if he were shaking off the rain.

"Like you," he said. "Looking for Miho."

Bloodeagle slipped her mask off and gave the man a wary eye. "Really," she asked. "She knows what happens when she attempts to enter Koi. Why would she try again?"

"If you were stuck in here, wouldn't you look for any way out?" he asked to answer her.

"Is that all?" she asked him. "Or is there something else you're not telling me?"

"If there were anything else, you would know," he told her while tapping his forehead. "Your mask sees all."

"Does it? Even when dealing with someone who can overpower it with their aura? I doubt it."

"My dear Bloodeagle, you are a pessimist, aren't you?" he laughed.

She turned and folded her arms. "I'm a realist. Reality has slapped me around enough that I take everything around me with a grain of salt, so don't bother sounding as if you have nothing to do with what's going on right now. I know better than that, and I don't need my mask to tell me that." When she looked back, he was gone and Miho was back.

"I can't leave you two alone for a minute!" she scolded the spirit. "I go up to search the world above, and you're back in that boy's body causing mischief!"

Miho looked confused. "Where was I?" she asked. "I was here watching my brother and sisters… wasn't I?"

Bloodeagle glared at her. She then turned her look towards the rain-filled sky.

"Phoenix? What were you doing here?"

Koi looked around himself. "What… what am I doing here in the courtyard of Old Home?" he asked himself. He looked back and found Rakka running towards him.

"Koi! Koi what are you doing?" she called out.

He shivered. "Rakka… Rakka, lock me up! Find somewhere where I can be held. I must not loose myself like that again!"

"Koi, what do you mean?" she asked as he draped himself over her shoulder. He nearly collapsed as all his strength seemed to leave his legs.

"Something is pulling my strings… I feel like a puppet!" he moaned. "I will not allow this. I must be able to control this!"

Rakka looked back at those with her. "Come on, let's get you inside," she said as she saw the doctor gesture towards the doorway. "We'll let Abigail look you over and determine the correct course, okay?"

He weakly nodded. Kana came over and helped Rakka haul the nearly limp boy into the men's dorms and laid him out onto his bed. The others had rushed up towards the guest room to discover why Kinza had been yelling so.

"A Demon's Gate? Here?"

Kinza nodded to the doctor as he gestured towards the doorway to the kitchenette behind them. "Right there, right between here and the outer room."

"If Mr. Kinza had not pulled me out…" Hikari whimpered. She was still clinging to his shoulder.

"Probably nothing would have happened," he finished for her. "As scary as they may seem, they actually frighten off rather easily. You just have to stand up to them."

"But what is a Demon's Gate?" she asked.

"It is how I come into the Holy Sites," the voice of Ptolemy said from behind the curtain that was the covering to the doorway. It slid aside to allow the old man in. "And it troubles me that someone other than The Corporation was able to use it."

"What? Are you upset that someone else used your monopoly?" the housemother chortled as she washed the baby's wings. "Competition is bad for you?"

"Competition my eye!" Ptolemy burst. "WE are the only ones ALLOWED to use the Demon's Gate – it says so in the Treaty of Set! When that rouge one appeared, it set off every alarm back at headquarters!"

"That must have been noisy," Kinza commented.

"Ah, you must be Captain Strom's security officer I was told was here," Ptolemy said as he held out his hand to him. He was surprised by the paw-and-cork that was handed back to him. "I hear that you were snooping around this place today."

"Just being a good security officer, sir!" Kinza replied. "Pardon the cork…"

"Mr. Kinza, you didn't," Dr. McManus said as she was scanning the cheerful little girl as she splashed in her bath. She looked at the cork and then at the small wings that the housemother was attempting to clean.

"He was very quick," she said almost giddily. "I've never seen a Haibane child recover from wing-birth so quickly!"

"I hope it was clean?" the doctor asked. Kinza pulled the cork off and exposed the white claw under it.

"Fresh break, alcohol and boiled… unless you wanted me to use a table knife…"

Everyone in the room flinched at the description then added a rousing "no, no, that's okay…"

"I don't get it," Kana said a bit out of the loop. Hikari whispered it into her ear on just what the Tomassamassa had done.

"COOL!" she shrieked. This was followed by a brief moment of silence, followed by little Koni's wail.

Early that evening, Kinza sat in the courtyard watching the sky of the late summer roll over the walls of Old Home. He pondered the third floor of the southern wing, and saw the sunlight lighting up the room he had found Koni in. He looked over his shoulder at the patio above him outside the guest quarters. He could hear the girls and some Young Feathers playing with her. He sipped his iced tea and scrutinized his patch again.

"So, you got a one – one – zero - one order?" he heard as Ptolemy sat down beside him. "What are you going to do about that?"

He shrugged. "I have to follow its orders," he replied. "I must observe just what is happening around here, and my central focus was delivered to me in a sphere the size of a basketball."

"Makes you wonder who's baby that had been," the old man said as he too started in on his iced tea.

"Makes you wonder why an infant like that came here in the first place," Kinza retorted. "I mean, isn't there usually a reason for someone to become a Haibane?"

"At first we thought there was," Ptolemy said as he sat back and put his feet up, "but resent events now says otherwise. The Haibane are special to us, no matter how or why they came here, or what force sent them to us."

"So why were there so many dead cocoons up there?" the Tomassamassa asked. He looked over at the scientist and found him staring at him in astonishment.

"How many did you find up there?" he asked.

Kinza noticed the inflection in his voice. "I didn't count outright, but there had to be at least a dozen circles on the floor in the room where I found her, not to mention the full sized fossilized one in the room next to hers. And I never did get up to the forth floor."

Ptolemy put his glass down, but his hand shook so that he still spilled some of his drink. "And that was only two rooms?" he asked.

"There's only a few rooms up there on that end," Kinza noted, "and I didn't get the chance to check on the last one in that section."

"I would like to see for myself," Ptolemy said.

"Are you sure you're up to it?" Doctor McManus asked as she joined them. "You seem older than before."

"Well, you're a bundle of good news," he grumbled. "How is the young Master Koi doing?"

"Recovering," she sighed. "His bio-readings are all over the board. It's like he's had someone else inside him all day."

"He probably has, seeing that he's a sensitive," Ptolemy stated as he laid his head against the back of the seat and watched some birds fly over the courtyard's walls. "And I think I may know from where."

McManus sipped her coffee. "Oh, you mean that soul-collecting rock northwest of here?" she asked.

Ptolemy shook his head. "I won't ask where you learned that information from, but yes."

Kinza snorted. "Observer's scanners are rather invasive at times, aren't they?" He pulled out the scanning rod he had been given and pointed it up at the rooms. It squawked at him.

"And rather limited with the shield ionized the way it is," McManus added. "Have you any idea on how long this is going to last?"

Ptolemy shook his head as he stared at the sky. "Seeing all that electromagnetic and kinetic energy that your satellites and that power unit of yours put out, Mr. Kinza, I'm surprised the shield is still up there at all.

The Tomassamassa glared up at the sky. "I didn't put up that much," he stated. "Even if my power unit had been fully destabilized, the core was fueled with pseudo-matter, not anti-matter."

Ptolemy sat up. "Pseudo-matter? Fake anti-matter?"

Kinza nodded. "Basically a transmat takes a chunk of iron, copies it and inverts its atoms – put the two near each other and you siphon off the resulting energy that they generate. The trick is, without the transmat, the negative piece quickly vanishes. It's a much safer system than matter/anti-matter… just not as powerful."

Ptolemy sat a bit befuddled. "Why is it that when I tinkered with anti-matter, I got a face full of angry angels, yet your people use it without any issues, and have even surpassed it with a substitute that's supposedly safer?"

Kinza waved his finger in the air. "Uh uh... there was and is some major differences in how they handled their energy uses and the way you did, kiddo. First would be at what technological level were you at when you attempted your first reaction?"

Ptolemy sat back with a depressed look. "Obviously not far enough, since the core went unstable right after initial reaction was started."

Kinza winked. "Thermal transition buffer rods - ya gotta love 'em! They're essential in containing the reaction, and your system had what compared to only two of them, when a unit the size you made required about ten. And you wonder why Bahdom sent down his warriors to stop you."

The old scientist pondered things. "But pseudo-matter... I understand the principal of the idea, but it kind of falls into the category of a perpetual-motion machine, which is impossible."

Kinza sipped his tea. "Yes and no," he explained. "Logic would say that trying to create energy by expending energy would eventually fail as the energy put into the effort would soon supersede the energy put out, right?"

"That would seem logical," Ptolemy said while watching Dr. McManus look completely dazed by the techno-babble being sent between the two of them. "So how does one compensate for this problem?"

Kinza looked at his patch and tapped it. "Is it okay to tell him S.A.M.?" he asked it.

"Corporation data base is partly-connected to the S.A.M. System," it replied. "If this knowledge was accessed, it would be offered freely with no amendment to those with Level One clearance."

Ptolemy twiddled his fingers in the air. "That would be me," he said. "And the answer is?"

"Hyper-capacitors," Kinza answered him. "My little Scat-Back had four of them, while my mother ship, since it has two major power centers, has banks of 50 house-sized units. And the trick is how they get started and recharged. In the case of my busted-up bird out there, it does have a limited life because it uses absolutely zero anti-matter to start the transmats onboard. So initially it requires a ground link to the ship."

"Wouldn't that kill it right there?" the Doctor asked. "I mean, if you were to shut off your power while not on the ship, wouldn't that strand you where you landed?"

"That's why he uses capacitors rather than batteries," Ptolemy stated. "Worked correctly, anti-matter reactions produce energies greater than what would be required to operate a transmat. Since a capacitor is designed to let its built-up energy go in a burst, rather than drawn out like batteries do, a capacitor that is capable of retaining enough power to flash-run a transmat would be all that would be needed to create a suitable piece of pseudo-matter long enough for it to start generating exponentially."

"And as soon as the pseudo-matter is powering the systems," Kinza continued, "it takes over for the capacitors, plus recharges them for the next discharge required, be it for the transmat, engine ignition, or firing the weapons. Now, that's fine and dandy in a Scat-Back. But as for Forrestal... there is a tiny anti-matter generator in both power centers to keep everything operational."

Ptolemy picked up his iced tea. "With a blast radius of...?" he asked as he took a slurp.

Kinza scowled at him. "Yes, it is still anti-matter. If either would detonate, they would pretty much vaporize the ship... well, maybe one of Forrestal's sister ships... the trick is, they minimized the use of pure anti-matter. I mean, coming from a fleet that used a five-hundred kilo block of the stuff per ship, which easily could take out a planet or two, and in some cases DID, what they did to make their system safer is some piece of engineering!"

"But at a substantial power loss," Ptolemy added. "I can imagine that pseudo-matter doesn't have the kick that anti-matter has."

Kinza nodded his head. "Maybe so, but it's still plenty for my shuttles and Scat-Backs. And there is a slight size difference between what Forrestal uses in its power transfer unit and what's inside my tiny fighter's PTU."

"So, when you ejected your power core, the reaction should have diminished as soon as the transmat system was turned off," the old professor surmised. He saw Kinza rub the back of his neck.

"Mmm… yes, that's the way it's supposed to work," he mused. "As a matter of fact, when the power is cut to the transmat, the pseudo-matter should vanish instantly. But in my case, there seems to have been enough energy going through my ship's PTU to power the transmat's buffer for a few extra seconds. That should be impossible. And even if it were, if they were to detonate, it shouldn't have been enough to ionize the shields to this length and time."

Ptolemy put his glass down and reached for his cell phone. "So, are you asking me to see if something or someone is inhibiting our shield?" Ptolemy questioned.

"It wouldn't hurt to check," Kinza said as he looked at his scanning rod and made it squawk again. "After all, it prevents everyone from possibly seeing the truth here, doesn't it?"

"Speaking of truths," Doctor McManus noted from behind her coffee cup, "let me tell you what Katherine told me…"

* * *

Rakka looked up the connecting hallway to the refurbished section of the north wings. It was not complete yet, but looking through the plastic drapes the construction workers had put up still made it seem as if she were peering into another world. Even with the lights off, the area looked and smelled fresh and clean. She wasn't used to such things in Old Home.

She had come to check on Koi, whose room sat beside the work area. She tapped on the door and found it ajar. She peeked in and saw his bed. It was empty. She swung the door further into the room and saw that it was devoid of anyone.

"Where did he go?" she pondered. She looked into the rebuilt section then towards the housemother's apartment.

There was a clank from above. The stairwell to the upper level was next to the apartment. She headed up and peeked about the second floor landing. Another thud told her to keep looking further into the area south of her.

"Hello?" she called. "Koi? Is that you? Are you there? It's not safe down there!"

A plank dropped far down the hallway. She looked hard, but the darkness was impossible to see through. She continued through what she knew was still useable rooms, passing by Reki's old art workshop. She stopped momentarily and looked back. The door was open.

She peeked in. All seemed intact. The old pots of paint and tubes of oils sat unused now for over a year and a half. She looked at the closed door to the sanctum that her friend had created to house her dream in. She slowly opened the door.

Koi was standing in the center of the room. He was entranced by the lone white spot on the far wall – the point that had been Reki's tormentor, and now seemed to mesmerize him.

"Koi?" she asked him. "Are you okay? What are you doing in this room?"

"I am lost," he finally said towards it. "I am under siege. I am missing something, and yet, I feel filled beyond overflowing. I am… confused."

"Why is that?" Rakka asked. The question must have sparked something in him as he flinched and looked at her. He had expected her to suggest leaving this place, not to ask that. Rather, what he saw was her now staring at the white spot on the maelstrom wall like he had been doing. He returned to the vision as well.

"This artist… such a vision of darkness… did you know him?"

"Her," she corrected him. "Remember, you and BW are the first guys here that I knew of. And yes, I knew her… this is Reki's dream."

He stepped up to the wall and drew his finger down the dark gray that edged the path. He followed it along the floor to the far wall. He then noticed the slight shading of stones along the ground.

"A train…" he whispered. He looked over his shoulder at the spot of white again. "Her dream…"

Rakka stood in shock as she watched him sit down in the center of the path facing the white orb.

"Pain… the pain in this… the pain in this artwork… in this room…" He looked up at her. "How did she stand it?"

Rakka squatted down beside him. "She nearly didn't," she said.

"Until Rakka saved me."

Rakka froze. She saw a light play over Koi's face. He seemed fascinated in what he was seeing, but not overly excited. She saw a shadow cross him, which caused her to look over her shoulder.

The white spot was glaring brilliant now, but it was mostly blocked by a vision.

"What the hell am I doing back down here?" Reki asked. "I've got work to do."

oOo

_**Play the RPG Sadako's Well on AnimeMangaWorld! – Email for the address**_

_**Join the Renmei – Visit the C2 Community and Discussion Forums of Charcoal Feathers of Glie & Surrounding Territories here on FFN!**_

Character Name 'Bloodeagle' and "Lady Bloodeagle" ©2008-2011 S. E. Nordwall – Used with Permission

The Phoenix Guild, Phoenix ©2008-2011 C. Ruester/Brightblade Productions – Used with Permission

Captain Roy Strom, Doctor Abigail McManus, The Observers, Elb Kinza Farley, Scanning Rods, Scat-Backs, U.N.S. Forrestal ©2008-2011 Denivan Media Services – Used With Permission

Characters from Haibane-Renmei ©2008-2011 Yoshitoshi ABe

Haibane-Renmei: CORPORATION ©2008-2011 The Golden Halo Project/DMS

Edit & Revisioned 1106.29


	11. Perigee

**.**

**2 0 1 1 - R E V I S I O N**

**-O-**

**H A I B A N E - R E N M E I :**

**C O R P O R A T I O N**

Chapter Eleven

**Perigee**

By R. A. Stott

Kinza sat up and stared at the main gate. Ptolemy cleaned his glasses and followed suit. Dr. McManus pulled out her scanning rod and began to take readings.

The woman stood with a shocked expression on her face as she looked about. As she did, wisps of light floated off her shoulders as if she were evaporating. She began to shrink as her features grew younger and younger. Her long golden hair retracted into a short bob-cut, and her robes became a simple shirt and shorts combination.

"I'm… I'm home!" she cried. "Why am I back at home?"

Above them on the balcony a baby squealed. Kinza's hearing picked up a barely audible gasp and looked up. He saw Hikari with a horrified expression on her face.

"Kuu?" he heard her nearly whisper. "KUU!"

The little tom-boy girl at the gate shivered as she looked up at the balcony with tears streaming down her face. "Hikari? HIKARI!"

"All systems alert!" Kinza pulled his shirt communicator patch from his pocket. "All systems alert!" it yelled in the voice of S.A.M. the computer. "Breech in progress! Breech in progress!"

Ptolemy's cell phone rang, making him jump in his seat. "Location 01-01," he said as he popped it open.

"Honey?" he heard his wife Janice ask. "Are you alright?" She sounded nervous.

"Other than seeing someone who had their day of flight long ago standing in front of me, I'm fine and dandy," he told her.

He heard her breath heavily. "Thank god," she said. "The readings here almost made it look like Glie had just exploded!"

He looked around. The sky was still there. The walls were still up. The child was still standing in front of them, though she was now being draped over by Nemu. He saw McManus looking at him as she showed him the business end of her scanner.

"I'm looking at readings now," he told Janice. "It looks like an upheaval from below. Whoa, wait a minute…"

The readings switched. A red shift from below became a blue wall from above.

"Nemu! What's happening?" the girl asked as she suddenly shot up in size and age.

"Oh, hang on, folks!" Kinza yelped as he stood up on his chair and looked around at the edge of the walls. Streamers of light were flying skywards from all around the area. He saw one or two become red. He whipped his own rod out and pointed at the nearest magenta-colored one.

"Oh scragg!" he grunted. "Ptolemy, we have a problem!"

McManus withdrew her scanner so she could see what the security officer was reading. She gasped and quickly returned the readout to the scientist.

The near red one started to withdraw back towards the ground.

"NO!" he shouted. "THEY CAN'T DO THAT!"

Nemu stood back as she watched the now adult Kuu launch a streamer of light towards the sky. At her feet though was an ominous red glow.

Kinza leaped over to Dr. McManus and ripped open her bag. He yanked out a necklace that had an odd looking pendant hanging from it. He gave it a hard twist and looked over his shoulder at the woman. The red was climbing up her quickly. He ran over and forced himself into her light field and draped the necklace over her.

Like an electric switch that had been dunked in water, both the streamer of upward light and the red glow sparked and vanished. The woman shivered and fell to her knees as Kinza gathered her into his arms.

He suddenly felt someone pummeling his back. He looked back to find Nemu crying and striking him.

"WHAT DID YOU DO!" she screamed. "WHAT DID YOU DO! YOU'VE KILLED HER! YOU'VE KILLED HER!"

"Tsk - he saved her," they heard from the top of the gate. Nemu looked up to see the leather-clad image of Gabrella standing there glaring down at them.

Ptolemy stood up and buttoned his shirt. "What is going on here, Gabby?" he groused. "This is a clear violation of the Treaty of Set. Why has the basement started this?"

She switched her glare from the Haibane to the old man. "Who said we started this?" she sneered. He saw him point at the scanning rod in the doctor's hand.

"It becomes rather easy to see when you have the right tools," he replied. "Your forces began a mass pull from below, removing the proper balance to this place. When the attic retaliated and began retrievals, your forces began to do selective kidnappings of souls!"

Gabrella smirked and sat down on the tiles. "Are you finished?" she asked. "Because if you are, I'd like to note that we aren't attacking, and we haven't stolen any souls. Besides, if we were into such a disgusting method, why would we want souls that ascended? They're too… clean." She looked down at the Tomassamassa and at the woman in his arms. "You seemed to have blocked that one," she stated.

He grunted as he looked at the pendant he had placed over Kuu. "This is a Doorknob," he noted as he adjusted the device. "It is a shield generator meant to block mental intrusions. At its maximum setting though, it pretty much blocks everything." As he turned it down a bit, the woman relaxed and looked less shocked and more like she had an all-time headache pounding through her head.

"Very well," the Demon-Goddess said as she stood up again. "I wouldn't leave that on her too long then. She requires contact with the attic to remain intact, since she is down here without a vessel. If I were you, I'd find that goddess who stops by here regularly. And by the way…"

She vanished and reappeared beside Kinza. "Keep close tabs on that baby you found," she told him while tweaking his goatee. "She's quite a little bargaining chip. Both sides want her, and personally…"

She looked over at the gateway and saw Katherine standing there.

"…neither side should get her," she finished. She made a quick jump and vanished.

Kinza looked over at the Goddess. She was still glaring at where the demon had disappeared to. When she looked down at him, she first smiled then looked away almost as if embarrassed.

"Why do I get the feeling I'm going to have to deal with you two a lot from now on?" he sighed. He then found Kuu becoming quite heavy as she collapsed the rest of the way over him.

* * *

Rakka stood and stared at the figure in the doorway to this nightmare that she and Koi were in. The artist who had made it was there.

"Crap." Reki looked at her clothes. They were the same ones she had been wearing when she had her day of flight, right down to the worn and tattered jacket.

"This was her dream, wasn't it?" Koi asked. "The pain… the loneliness…"

"Personally, I could use a little alone-time these days," Reki stated as she felt around herself. "Being in charge of all those proto-angels will drive you nuts! Huh… no halo…"

Rakka had been in a half-stupor as she stared at her old friend until that last simple statement was said. She blinked and scrutinized her harder.

"Reki, turn around, would you?" she asked her.

She blinked. "You haven't seen me in nearly two years, and the first thing you ask me is to turn around?" she blurted but obeyed.

When she returned to facing her, she saw that Rakka's eyes were wide as saucers.

"No wings!" Rakka chirped as she pointed. "You've got no wings!"

Reki instinctively reached back. There did not seem to be anything there to grab. She could feel the slits in her shirt's back slip up and down against her skin. It was unnerving.

She stepped out of the room into her old bedroom.

"Where's my mirror?" Rakka heard her yell. "Damn it… someone took my mirror? I leave here and someone took my floor mirror? Oh, never mind…"

Rakka looked out the door at her. She found Reki looking over her shoulders at a small hand mirror she was trying to hold behind her head.

"Where did they go? Where did they go?" she heard her ask to herself. "They shouldn't just vanish! I'm only a spirit… Rakka! Rakka, come here, quick!"

Rakka walked over to her friend's side. The mirror was thrust into her hands as Reki stepped away to look at it.

Koi stepped into the room with a slight stagger. He almost seemed drunk. "Voices… so many…" he mumbled.

"What's that Koi?" Rakka asked, distracted by his rambling.

Reki almost spun around in a fit attempting to see properly what had become of her wings. First her jacket was flung off - Then her vest. Finally her shirt flew until she could see her bare back.

"Naked…"

Rakka's hair stood on end. She scampered back to turn the boy away to the complaints of Reki that the mirror had just left her view. She raised the mirror again and held it out.

She then began to stare at Reki's bare back. There were no signs that wings had ever protruded from her shoulders. All that was there was a smooth thin frame of her body.

Reki sighed and pulled her shirt back over her head. She looked over at her shocked friend and the boy in the background and snickered.

"Well now, did you go and get yourself a boyfriend, Rakka?" she asked with a bit of a wicked grin.

Rakka turned scarlet. "Rekiiiiii!" she whined.

"Rekiiiiii!" Koi copied.

"Rakka?" they heard from down the hallway. "Rakka, are you up there!"

Rakka stuck her head out of the bedroom. She could see the glint of a flashlight at the far end of the corridor.

"I'm up here Kana!" she called out.

"Come quick!" Kana called back. "Kuu's back!"

Rakka looked back into the room. "She's here too?" she asked no one in particular. But it was loud enough for Kana to hear her, as she made a mad dash for where Rakka was.

"What do you mean she's here too?" Kana asked her out of breath. She then caught sight of what she meant.

" Hi-eee!" Reki grinned and waved her hand.

"Oh crap, what's going on!" Kana yelped as she staggered back against the open door. "First I see everyone's halo start to fade out then everyone I know who had their day of flight is back!"

"So many voices," Koi moaned as he stumbled back into the sanctum room.

"And what's with him all of a sudden?" Kana did not get an answer to that question as she was suddenly shaken by Rakka.

"What was that about halos fading out?" she asked her.

Kana shook her head. "Well, yea, it was just as Doc McManus was dragging his sorry butt into the hospital for decking Jester, I saw Nemu's halo fade out for a moment. But then so did everyone else's. Why?"

Rakka looked back at Reki. She seemed confused.

"The last time I saw that happen," she whispered, "was when Kuu, then Reki's day of flight was approaching.

"Hey," Kana noticed, "she doesn't have a halo!"

She turned around and showed Kana her back. "No wings either!" she said in an almost giddy way. "Ooh, I know what I need now!"

They both blinked at her. "Huh?" they asked.

"A cigarette! They don't let me smoke up there!"

Reki rummaged through a drawer and found a stale pack of some foul burning weed. She yanked one out and stuck it in her mouth. This was followed by an almost frantic patting down of her body, then a further rummaging through the drawers.

"Lighter… lighter… lighter…" she was mumbling to herself. She heard a flick and saw a glow behind her.

"You gave it to me when you left," Rakka told her as she held up the flame. "I use it to light the lantern I use down in the canals."

Reki stared at the hand holding out the light and the face beyond.

"Damn, I never thought…" she said with a slight smile.

"Never thought what?" Kana asked from behind Rakka.

Reki laughed. "I never thought I'd miss this dump!" She reached down and touched the end of the cigarette to the flame and drew in. It nearly caught fire because of how dried out it was. She managed only a few short draws on it before it was gone, and she gagged on those. She saw the hand with the lighter now handing it to her.

"You keep it," she lightly coughed. "Obviously, I quit smoking for a reason…"

"Yea, not to turn green," Kana kidded her as the cigarette had obviously not gone down well.

"So what is going on here?" she finally asked. "Why am I here? And you said Kuu was here too?"

"Sort of," Kana said as she scratched the back of her head. "For a minute she looked like Kuu, all short and kid-like, but she looks like a grownup woman now."

Reki nodded. "That would explain why I showed up in these clothes then. I certainly don't wear these up there."

There was a thump from the next room. Then another. Then another. Rakka looked in.

"Make - it - stop!" Koi was saying as he stood before the white spot on the far wall as he smacked his head against it.

Rakka ran in and grabbed him and held him away from doing more damage to himself. Kana grabbed his other shoulder and they dragged him towards the center of the room. His forehead was all bloody.

"What is his problem?" Reki asked as she pulled some clean rags out of a short artist's table.

"Doctor McManus said he's a sensitive," Rakka stated as she cradled him in her lap. "We've got to get him to her!"

"Wouldn't it be easier to bring her here to him?" Reki asked.

"She's out front helping Kuu," Kana pointed out. "Kinza had to rescue her before she got dragged away by whatever all this is about!"

"Well then, we'll just have to get him to her!" Reki stated as she leaned over the boy. She placed her fingers on the side of his head and quietly said to him "settle."

Koi gasped some air then went limp. Kana and Rakka stared at Reki as she stood up.

"I'll take his legs," she said.

"Wait a minute!" Kana harped. "How did you do that?"

Reki shrugged as she reached down to lift the boy up. "I have to do that to the proto-angels sometimes. They get a bit feisty at times, and you just need to tell them to settle. I figured it might work on a boy as well!"

"You've got to teach me that," Kana grunted as she and Rakka lifted by his shoulders. "I'd love to try that on my boss!"

Kuu was now seated on one of the Adirondack chairs sipping on some hot tea as Dr. McManus and Katherine examined her. Nemu was rubbing her back above her wings.

"INCOMING!" Kana shouted as the three girls carrying the boy came bounding out of the building. "Man down!"

Kinza came over and hauled Koi up from the ladies and brought him over to another chair where he laid him out. He looked over his shoulder at the slight surprised stare he was getting from yet another new face.

"Well, I haven't seen you here before," he said as he ran his scanner over Koi. "Wow, Doc, we have a serious convergence going on here."

Reki stared and pointed at the alien. She was going to ask Rakka who that was until a gasp beside her caught her attention.

Nemu stood lock-kneed beside her.

"Oh, hi Reki," Kuu said as she noticed the soothing shoulder rub had stopped.

Nemu stared for almost a minute before her eyes rolled up into her head and she collapsed at Reki's feet. The doctor shook her head.

"One disaster at a time, please!" she said. "Could someone get her to that chair please?"

A crying wail now wafted over the crowd. Kinza looked up at the balcony.

"You okay up there kiddo?" he called up.

"We need diapers!" Hikari called down. She then froze at the sight of Reki lifting Nemu off the ground with Rakka and Kana's help.

"You're kidding!" she finally yelped. "You too?"

"Yes, me three!" Reki replied as she laid Nemu into the last chair displacing an old man who seemed to be chatting to himself, but was actually barking orders into a cell phone.

"Reki," she heard, "where are your wings?" She looked back to find Katherine looking at her back. "Are you able to hide them?" she asked.

"Not that I know of," Reki replied. "When I arrived, both they and my halo were gone."

Kinza cleared his throat. "Guys, I think I can answer that," he said as he held Koi forward. On his back were two sets of wings, one set overlapping the other.

* * *

Bloodeagle squirmed as she sat on Sinner's Rock. What had just happened had struck her hard as well. She swore she was in an enclosed and fully packed stadium and everyone had shouted all at once. She adjusted her mask and dove into the stone.

"What the hell…" she said to herself. Miho's house was not there, but Miho was. She was seated before a throng of people, who were all sitting cross legged. And to add to the surrealism of the scene, everyone was talking - not to anyone in particular, and not with much cohesiveness of consciousness. Some were simply droning tones. Some were speaking nonsense. She found one speaking about stocks, while another was reciting 'The Grapes of Wrath' for no apparent reason.

"This was such a quiet place," she told Miho as she sat beside her.

The small girl raised her hand and the mass of souls fell silent.

"Why are they here?" she asked Bloodeagle.

"Good question," the fallen Haibane replied. "They certainly do not seem in control of themselves, and if they were not in here, I seriously doubt that they would be able to survive out there by themselves."

"You are correct," a man in the center said as he stood up. He turned and bowed to them.

"Phoenix, are you responsible for this?" she asked the man.

He looked about. "More to the point, this was an accident waiting to happen?" he questioned.

"That wasn't what I asked," Bloodeagle barked, causing Miho to flinch and those in the front to drop their heads to the ground. _"DID - YOU - DO - THIS!"_

He spun about. "And if I did?" he asked.

"DAMN YOU BIRD," she screamed as she flung her mask at him and struck him behind his ear. "ANSWER ME!"

He reached up and dabbed a small trickle of blood. "And if I did?" he asked again, though this time in a more hostile voice.

"If you did, why?" she shot back unimpressed.

The man abruptly sat down. "Ask them," he said. "If I was responsible for bringing them here, they would know. Ask them."

Bloodeagle stood up and looked at all the people surrounding her. She was about to point out one when she found her mask skipping into her feet.

"You might want that," the man stated with a harrumph.

Rather than put it on, Bloodeagle only raised it to her face as if it were a magnifying glass. What she saw was blue-white blobs with streamers of energy rising off them. She stepped over to the nearest person and tapped her on the head with it.

"Why are you here?" she asked the spirit.

"Quarter teaspoon of lemon extract," it replied. "One cup of sugar, two cups of all purpose flour…"

Bloodeagle snorted and tapped a man beside the woman on the shoulder.

"Hello, what can I do for you today?" he asked in a jovial way, belying his rather blank stare. "What type of cartridge are you looking for? Black or color? Would you like a protection plan with that? Remember that the manufacturer's warranty does not cover that…"

Bloodeagle looked back at Miho. The little girl raised her hand to silence the retail banter.

"Why do I get the feeling that not everyone here came through Glie?" Bloodeagle asked.

"They didn't," Miho replied, "at least not all of them. But why are they here at all?"

Bloodeagle turned her stare back on the man seated in the middle of the crowd. "Well?" she demanded.

He stood up and stamped his foot on the ground.

"I!" he shouted.

_**"I!"**_ thundered all the people. Bloodeagle staggered back and Miho covered her ears.

"I! I! I!" Phoenix repeated.

_**"I! I! I!"**_ Bloodeagle wilted from the cacophony. Miho raised her hands.

"I AM!" Phoenix continued, but the people did not. He looked back at the girl.

"I do not care how powerful you are, Mr. bird man," she said quite angrily, "but while you are in here, you follow MY rules!"

He looked around at the faces that now looked at him. "How?" he asked. "How are you able to do this?"

"You are not a spirit!" Miho stated, now as an older woman.

"But I do govern them!" he hissed. "I AM!"

_**"I AM!"**_ they all shouted at him, causing him to rise into the air. He flipped and fluttered, changing into the fiery bird as he streaked off into the white void.

"That is one seriously deranged bird," Bloodeagle said. She looked down at the woman beside her and found the small child there instead.

"What is she doing?" Miho quietly asked. "What is she doing?"

The small girl stood up and raised her arms. In rings spreading out from herself, the spirits rose into the white above them.

The Doorknob necklace dropped to the ground. Kuu lifted off the chair. She looked down at the gawking expressions as she found herself once again making the trip she had done before in a less-than-graceful tumble and roll.

Reki stared.

"Umm… am I supposed to be following her or something?" she asked.

"Hey! Somebody help me here!" they heard. Reki looked over and saw the small furry alien holding onto the boy's legs as he was being lifted into the air like a limp rag doll.

"Koi!" Rakka yelped as she grabbed his arms. Reki followed behind her and tried to grab to closest one to her. But when she touched his skin, her hand nearly fell into his body. The extra set of wings on the boy's back fluttered and grew slightly. They also took on a whiter sheen.

Reki looked at her hand startled. She looked behind her and found Katherine there.

"Get into him," the goddess told her. "It is not his time."

"It might not be his time, but he's sure determined to try!" Kinza remarked as Ptolemy and McManus now tried to hold him down. "HURRY!"

Reki stepped up to the boy. She reached out to touch him again, but paused a moment to smile at Rakka.

"Are you doing well here?" she asked her.

Rakka cocked her head towards the boy. "We've had a few adventures since you've been gone. It certainly hasn't been boring!"

Reki shook her head and snorted. "That's certainly an understatement!" She bent over and grabbed Koi's arm.

"Reki?" she heard as she felt herself start to be drawn within the boy's body. She turned to fall into him and saw that Nemu had awoken.

"Asleep at the wheel as usual, Nemu?" she asked as she vanished into Koi. The wing on his back burst wide and white, sending those who were holding him down falling back. They then separated from his own pair as the robed vision of Reki pulled away from him, now complete with a halo that separated from the boy's.

"You keep these guys in line, Nemu!" Reki said as she began her second flight. She looked over at Hikari and the baby.

"And you!" she shouted. "Keep her safe!"

The baby giggled and fluttered her wings, much to the surprise of Hikari. She had to hold her out as to not get a face full of them.

As the twilight was settling, the bright spots that had been Kuu and Reki settled into the star field that was starting to become visible.

Kinza stood up and read his scanning rod once more. He snorted and looked at the scientist, who was busy examining the boy in his chair.

"Over is it?" he heard. He looked at the doorway to the building and saw Jester and Sol there.

"Not by a long shot, kiddo," he said. "Where is you sister?"

Jester fidgeted a bit as he saw Katherine and Koi. The boy was holding his head, shaking loose the ruckus that was banging around in it. "Know not Gabrella is where," he said in his nonsense way.

"She would not be here, if I am around," Katherine stated. She found the Tomassamassa glaring at her.

"Since when did either side follow that rule?" he asked. "Personally, I would appreciate it if both of you stuck around for the duration of all this." He then snapped a look up at the clock tower. "DID YOU HEAR ME MISS GABRELLA!" he roared.

A wisp of smoke trailed out of the high window of the tower. It reformed behind the goddess.

"You are very perceptive," she coyly said as she slinked around Katherine. "And why should we be breaking this rule made within the Treaty?"

Katherine angrily pushed the demon's wings aside. "Yes, why should either of us stay?" she demanded. "The rules state…"

"The rules are being broken," Kinza barked at them both. "Even a novice security agent can see that!"

Ptolemy nodded in agreement. "True, if your side did not create that downward pull, causing the attic to react as they did, then someone else did. We need to find out who that was, and why they did it."

"How much time have you got left before you need to get back to base?" Dr. McManus asked Ptolemy. He pulled out a fob watch and looked at it.

"Fairly soon, I'm afraid," he said. "All of this coming to the Holy Sites so often is giving me pains all over. I think I'm going to have to have Hipp look me over."

"Have him stop by here soon as well," the doctor added. "I would like him to look over Koi as well, since he is the resident Haibane expert here."

Ptolemy looked over his glasses at her. "I thought you were brought in as that."

"I was brought in by Hipp to stabilize and get under control that hospital they have here," she told him.

"I bet that pleases the Phoenix Guild no end," Gabrella laughed. "You're with that Denivan group your Captain belongs to, aren't you?"

The doctor gave the demon a confused look. "The who?" she asked. "My service is with the World Federation United Nations Space Fleet - Observers Corps, as is the Captain's."

"Gabby," Ptolemy sternly growled at the Demon-Goddess, "there are some things that are on a need-to-know basis, even on board a ship like Forrestal."

She laughed loud. "Their captain can transform himself into a giant Battle Phoenix! I doubt that is something they keep from his crew!"

"Actually, I haven't seen him do that yet," Kinza calmly said. "Tell me though, why would the Phoenix Guild be put out by this Denivan group that my captain seems to be part of?"

Ptolemy swatted Kinza in the shoulder. "Did you not just hear me?" he scolded him. "That is a need-to-know situation!"

Kinza glared at him then looked at the doctor. "Code One - One - Zero - One," he growled at her while rubbing his shoulder.

"And that gives him the right to ask such a question," she replied. "To the Observers, it is an order that allows the barer of such the power to ask what they deem needs to be asked. It is also best for those who are asked to tell the truth, since lying to an Observer can cause repercussions."

Kinza sighed as a strange look crossed his face. "Or it can cause what is coming through the gate right now," he said as he gestured over towards it.

Rakka looked at him then at the figures walking past the bulletin board. Two were bickering with each other while the third was just looking at the sky trying to ignore the others.

"That's - YOU!" she yiped at the three Tomassamassas walking into the courtyard. "But… but how can that be?"

Two were in uniform. The third was in the white Haibane shirt that the Kinza beside her was wearing. The two uniformed ones seemed nearly ready to go to blows, while the third one was looking more and more disgusted in both of them.

There was a piercing whistle. Rakka peeked over at her Kinza, and found him blowing between two fingers to make that disturbing sound.

"YO! Fuzz-for-brains!" Kinza barked. "I'm obviously the 0-0 for this little incursion! I need time relevancies and I need them NOW!"

"Who are these three?" Kana asked. "Are they really you?"

"From different time lines, yes," he grumbled. "This happens sometimes when crucial moments happen, and different options are available… the Observers will sometimes actually try the other options, then pick the best results, but it sometimes is left up to the breakpoint where the timeline diverges to make the decision. And I'm the breakpoint."

"Umm, not exactly," the Kinza wearing the same shirt as he announced. He held a finger up for everyone to wait a moment.

There was a scream from above them.

"Hikari?" Kinza called out. He looked back at his doppelganger. He was shooing him along.

"Actually, I'm the new 0-0," he told him.

"Scragg!" Kinza growled with a wild look on his face. "I hate this type even MORE!" He then ran for the building with a completely confused Rakka close behind.

Kana was about to follow when the new Kinza grabbed her arm.

"You're not part of what is about to happen," he told her. He then turned his attention to the Demon-Goddess beside them. "But you might want to follow, Miss Gabrella."

"Umm, what about Miss Katherine?" one of the uniformed Kinzas suggested.

Shirt Kinza looked at the other uniform. "What do you say?" he asked.

"Oh yes, she should go as well," he agreed. "Though that's pretty much where we finish agreeing."

"Understood," Shirt Kinza said. He gestured for them to follow. Seeing how far behind they were, they both chose to leap up to the balcony rather than the long stairwell approach their Kinza and Rakka were taking.

"I don't get it," Kana complained. "What's it mean that you're this 0-0?"

"It means that I'm the actual Kinza from this actual moment in time," the Tomassamassa said as he waved over towards the archway. "I am the breakpoint where these two are directed towards."

"Then who was that who just ran up the stairs?" a perplexed Nemu asked.

"That was my former self to whom I have become," the now first Kinza said with an almost eerie voice.

"How metaphysical," Ptolemy snorted.

"Actually, it's temporal physics," Kinza laughed as he waved towards the archway again. "I hate the stuff."

"Who are you waving at?" Kana asked. She looked over at the arch.

Katherine and Gabrella were walking out of it. They seemed oddly quiet, and were both - smiling?

"You see? I already knew she was going to go," Kinza told Kana with a wink.

Behind them, Rakka and Hikari were warily looking around and up at the balcony. Between them was a little girl that they were helping walk.

Shirt Kinza clapped his paws together and bent down. "There's my little Koni! There's my little Koni!"

The child giggled and chirped as she separated from the older girls' grasp and trundled on wobbly legs towards the Tomassamassa. He scooped her up and held her on his shoulder.

A tall dark man with long black hair stood behind Rakka and Hikari. He nodded at Kinza.

"Any problems getting them back here, Nightwatch?" Kinza asked.

"A slight problem at the gate… Torval's Lock I believe you would call it," the man said. "But otherwise, no."

Kana and Nemu stared at the little girl on this Kinza's shoulder. "Is that the baby?" they asked as Doctor McManus started to scan her.

Jester started to sniff.

"That's my little Koni," Kinza said with a silly smile on his face.

Sol watched as Jester started to spin around sniffing.

"How did she get so big?" Nemu asked.

Jester approached Rakka and Hikari. He sniffed at them. They looked at him with a bit of weariness on their faces.

"Chicken, smell you like!" he exclaimed.

"Fried," Rakka said in a drowsy tone.

"Crispy," Hikari agreed.

It was then that Kana and Nemu noticed that their fellow Haibane seemed a bit mussed up and dirty.

"What's up with you two?" Kana asked. "Where have you been?"

Rakka blearily looked up at her.

"Hell," she said.

"Well, the outskirts," Kinza grinned.

Nemu and Kana looked at him then back at the two who did seem to have faint wisps of smoke trailing off them.

"Rakka went to hell?" Kana asked.

"I did too!" Hikari added in a tired complaining way.

"When did that happen?" Nemu asked in a near panic as she went to assist the two weary Haibane.

"In about five - four - three - two - one," the Kinzas chorused. Above them they heard the sound of an alien swear followed by a green arc of light that flashed and lit up the face of the building. Then they could hear the two deities arguing. Another flash, this time white nearly blinded everyone. For a finale, there was a smaller green blink with a resounding POP as a crescendo, leaving everyone in the now dark courtyard and the chirping of crickets. A newly installed set of lights flickered on nearby.

"I do believe we have perigee," shirt Kinza stated. "I know you guys have apogee readings, do you have any for perigees?" he asked Ptolemy.

He flipped open his cell phone. "I believe we're about to find out," he stated.

oOo

_**Play the RPG Sadako's Well on AnimeMangaWorld! - Email for the address**_

_**Join the Renmei - Visit the C2 Community and Discussion Forums of Charcoal Feathers of Glie & Surrounding Territories here on FFN!**_

Character Name 'Bloodeagle' and "Lady Bloodeagle" ©2009-2011 S. E. Nordwall - Used with Permission

The Phoenix Guild, Phoenix ©2009-2011 C. Ruester/Brightblade Productions - Used with Permission

Captain Roy Strom, Doctor Abigail McManus, The Observers, The Denivan, Nightwatch, Elb Kinza Farley ©2009-2011 Denivan Media Services - Used With Permission

Gabrella ©2009-2011 The Lugia Project/DMS - Used with Permission

Characters from Haibane - Renmei ©2009-2011 Yoshitoshi ABe

Haibane - Renmei: CORPORATION ©2009-2011 The Golden Halo Project/DMS

Edit & Remastered 1106.30


	12. To Hell & Back Again A Haibane's Journey

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**2 0 1 1 - R E V I S I O N**

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**H A I B A N E - R E N M E I :**

**C O R P O R A T I O N**

Chapter Twelve

**To Hell and Back Again – A Haibane's Journey**

By R. A. Stott

Strom sat on the back bench along side his predecessor, Gather Damon, as the representative to The Corporation, Dante and his assistants conferred in the center of the amphitheater they were in. On one side was the representatives from the attic - to the other were the basement. On the high bench was Amethyst, representing The Phoenix Guild. Strom stewed over the Celestial being there.

"If this is so important to them, why isn't the Phoenix sitting there instead of its flunky?" he groused.

Amethyst smacked a gavel on his desk. "The chair notes the attendance of two of the illustrious Denivan Council with us today," he snidely said to those assembled. "And not only the current leader, but the future one as well. Now why is that?"

Gather Damon stood up, glancing over at Strom. "This universe is quite unpredictable, sir," he said. "The fact that my colleague is with us today is proof of that."

"Indeed," Amethyst said as he leaned on the mallet. "I'm not sure how I would handle being able to meet my replacement so far from the fact... And why are we graced by your presence, Captain Strom? Are you not – how do they say it – crossing a time-line by being here?"

He stood up and pulled on his uniform. "We have been requested as mediators," he said stiffly. "Granted, the lead shall be with Gather Damon here as current leader of the Denivan at this moment in time – But I am also as an Observer, which is the mission that my ship and crew serves. Chronology wise, we may cross paths with our past and our futures. It usually does not hinder our work."

"Yes, mediators... but what about intervention?" Amethyst interjected. "Was it not your own ship that used its shields to prevent the Seventh Realm and the Twelfth Dragoon from coming to blows, but unfortunately resulted in the demise of the archangel Striker Aries?"

Strom adjusted his footing. "Unfortunately, yes, but as a final act to prevent war from breaking out in a Holy Site, which must be prevented at any costs, as you know, SIR."

"Umm," Dante attempted to add, "plus it was at the request of a Corporation representative..." but was ignored.

Amethyst smiled. "Surely, that responsibility falls to the Phoenix Guild, does it not, Captain Strom? I mean that is how I see it written in the Treaty of Set, or am I mistaken?"

Strom shuffled his feet to quell the want to scream at this ego seated across from them. "The action taken was within Treaty rules, unless the Phoenix Guild is now saying that it was there to take preventative actions? We certainly did not see any at the time. And you do know you or your master can't hide, since my first officer is a sensitive. He knows wherever you or anyone else with powers like ours is at any given point of time."

Amethyst adjusted his tie. "We chose to – observe – rather than interfere."

"THAT is OUR JOB, not YOURS… _YOU_ should have been THE FIRST ONES THERE!" Strom finally thundered. "Prove to ME that the Phoenix Guild is capable of doing its job!"

Dante looked between the two men. It was quite obvious that there was a level of animosity being tossed back and forth. If the officer on the back bench was to be a moderator, peace was needed in the room where this moderation was going to be made. He cleared his throat.

"Gather Damon, what will your approach be for dealing with this situation?" he asked.

Dante was hoping that the other Denivan representative would have been a bit more settled, but he now was not in the mood to chastise his fellow member for speaking out of turn. Instead, he said, "First thing, if I am to be the mediator, I want _THAT THING_ out of _MY CHAIR!"_ while pointing an accusing finger at Amethyst.

Dante looked at his assistants, two of whom seemed to agree with the upset man. He then bowed towards the Celestial.

"I will have to agree with his point, though not with his wording, sir," Dante said. "As the Denivan is here to moderate, and the Phoenix Guild is here to enforce the Treaty, then the seat should be given to the chief moderator."

Amethyst spun the gavel in his hand. "Do you?" he asked. He glanced over at the now two angry glares he was getting from the back bench. "Umm… if looks could kill… Very well. The chair is yours." He stood up and stepped to one side, bidding Damon to have his seat.

It took a moment to find a way for Gather Damon to leave the back bench area, as there was no direct way to cross the floor to the front bench. Rather than take an unceremonious climb over the fence, he lifted off his feet and floated over it, gently landing on the center floor and walking the rest of the way. During this time, he never took his eyes off the Celestial, as it had been him who had created this venue in the first place. He climbed the step to the high bench and saw the chair that awaited him. It was an over-ostentatious monster that exuded more than it held.

"Remove that," he told Amethyst.

"It felt comfortable to me," the Celestial stated in a mock-hurt way. Damon glared at him as he sneered back at him. He waved his hand at the offending seat sending it slamming into the back of the room. He created a simple high-backed office chair and sat in it.

"A simple 'please' would have sufficed," Amethyst said as he slowly stepped down and walked over to the back bench, where a doorway suddenly appeared and allowed him to climb up into them. He smiled at Strom and sat on one end as the Captain sat down on the other.

"This is getting us nowhere," Dante grumbled. "Gentlemen, if we are finished with the posturing, may we get down to business?"

Damon looked at the gavel that was lying on his desk and shooed it away as well. He then created a stone and slate set. He tapped them with a loud cracking sound.

"We are here today to deal with a dispute between the attic and the basement over equal standings within the Holy Sites," Damon announced as he shuffled through some papers that were handed to him from Dante's group. "I would like to thank the representatives for coming here today."

"That is not all!" a shout from his right was made. Damon looked up at the group from the attic in surprise.

"Excuse me?" he asked.

"What about the baby?" a deity dressed in red and gold called out.

"What about this attempt at drawing souls down to the basement?" another added.

"Do not attempt to put that blame on US!" someone from Damon's left now refuted. "We are still at a loss to what that was all about in the first place!"

Damon struck the gavel stone hard sending a loud bang through the room. "That will be enough!" he yelled. "Mr. Dante, what is the reading The Corporation can give us on what did occur an hour ago?"

Dante straightened his tie and looked over some data Rhea handed him. "Sir, from what we can find, a large downward pull on spirits and souls was made, but unlike the previous attack when the Archangel Striker Aries was… dispersed… a defined attack method was not found. The response though did come from the attic, which was the forceful reinsertion of the souls that had been brought back down to the Holy Sites by the first action."

Damon wrote notes on this description. "Were all souls accounted for?" he asked.

Dante cleared his throat. "Umm… no sir," he said.

"Oh, and they went where then?" Amethyst asked. He saw a look of anger from Strom. "I will have to know if the Phoenix Guild has to intervene, now won't I?"

Dante leaned over to listen to Rhea as she whispered in his ear. She was busy relaying information being downloaded to her via her laptop.

"I am told that since this was a system-wide breach, all Holy Sites were involved, and that only the souls that landed in Glie/Guri zone have completely returned to where they came."

"Why does that not surprise me, what with all that's going on there?" Amethyst snorted and he leaned back against his bench.

"Maybe so," Strom said to his side, "but we still need to know where those souls went in the other zones, and why Glie was the only one that returned theirs."

Amethyst gave him a slothful look. Strom glared back.

The gavel stone was tapped, drawing their attention. Damon was leaning over his desk at Amethyst.

"Perhaps you should be investigating where they all went?" he suggested to him. "After all, is that not your area according to the Treaty?"

Amethyst sighed and leaned over and planted his hands on his knees. "Oh, very well, if you insist!" He vanished.

So did all the furniture in the room, save the chair Gather Damon sat in. Everyone dropped to the ground of the now empty room. Rhea's laptop clattered and sparked as it bounced.

Amethyst stuck his head through a wall. "Oh, did I forget to tell you that since I set up this venue, if I go, it goes with me? 'Sorry about that! Ciao!" He vanished again.

"I really hate that guy," Rhea steamed. She collected her computer and looked to see if it still responded to her. It managed to chirp. She frantically ran over the keyboard as she read the flickering screen.

"We have another situation in Glie," she reported.

The green portal was swirling on the floor between the doorway to the balcony and the visitor's room. A bat-like creature had Hikari by her right wing. She was holding the baby away from the clamoring creature as the housemother was swatting it with a broom. Kinza burst through the doorway from the stairwell and charged in with Rakka close behind him. The demon saw him coming and wrapped itself around Hikari's legs and dragged her in.

"Yarrrgh!" Kinza growled as he dove after her, only to find the entry snap shut around him. His legs were dangling on one side while his loud and cursing end was within the nearly-closed Demon's Gate. Rakka grabbed them and attempted to pull him back.

"Don't pull him back! Push him IN!" Gabrella yelled as she came over the balcony's wall. "He'll want to follow them!"

Rakka looked back momentarily at the Demon-Goddess. "What?" she asked as she continued to pull.

"I SAID PUSH!" Gabrella yelled as she shoved Rakka in the back. She was surprised at how easily they slipped through the hole in the floor – _both_ of them.

"Oops," Gabrella said as Katherine stood beside her. The hole was starting to shrink.

"We have to follow," the Goddess said as she took Gabrella's hand.

"What?" she asked. She found herself suddenly shrunk down to a tiny size and then unceremoniously dragged through what was left of the portal.

Kinza flopped onto the mushy surface of the dark and oddly green world he was now in. He was then splattered further as Rakka landed on him.

"Who was pulling me back there Rakka?" he groused.

"I'm sorry," Rakka nearly cried as she rubbed herself where she hit. "Where are we?"

Kinza sat up massaging his sore leg. He looked around them. "Down a pretty nasty rabbit hole, that's for sure. Maybe Philadelphia."

"You're certainly off the path, that's for sure," they heard from above them. When they looked up though, all they saw were two small doll-like things that looked like a tiny Katherine and Gabrella.

"Belkar's beard, what happened to you two?" Kinza asked as they lighted on Rakka's halo, or at least momentarily. Gabrella found her feet sizzling after a few seconds, so she lifted off and floated over to the Tomassamassa's shoulder. Katherine moved to Rakka's after she discovered the disk spun slowly over the Haibane's head.

"Ask her," the demon growled with a nasty gesture towards the goddess. "I only told this one to shove you in, not for us to follow along a shrinking path!"

Katherine was about to counter her when Hikari's scream for help echoed around them. The dark void made it sound as if the cry had come from all around them.

"Hikari!" Rakka shouted into the black.

"Rakka!" was called back. Kinza twisted his ears about trying to center a possible direction to head, but the echo was too pronounced. But he had little time to explain this, as he now had to contend with a running Haibane who was vanishing into the distance.

"Hey! WAIT!" he shouted as he scrambled to his feet and chased after Rakka.

She splattered along the damp mushy surface. "Hikari!" Rakka shouted again.

"RAKKA!" she heard as if right beside her ear. Both she and the mini Katherine winced. She slid to a stop.

"Hikari?" she asked looking about. All she could see was the approach of the Tomassamassa.

"Rakka?" she heard, again as if Hikari were standing beside her.

A baby cried for a moment.

"KONI!" they heard Hikari ask. "Where is Koni?"

Rakka spun about. "Hikari, where are you? I can hear you as if you're here! Do you still have Koni?"

"I… I thought I did, but, I don't know now," she heard her reply.

"Something is not right," Katherine stated as she sensed around. "It is as if she has been dispersed."

She looked over at Rakka from her perch on her shoulder, and saw she was not exactly listening to her. The Haibane was looking up at something.

"Rakka!" she then heard. "Rakka, where did you go?"

Katherine followed Rakka's gaze and saw Kinza.

She saw him looming overhead.

"EVERYBODY STOP MOVING, NOW!" the Goddess shouted.

Kinza froze momentarily. He then dropped his right foot down with a wet thud nearby.

"Okay, Katherine, I hear you," he said, "but I don't see you."

"Mr. Kinza, we're down here!" Rakka shouted while waving her hands about. "Between your feet!"

The security officer winced, as did the Demon-Goddess to the volume of Rakka's call.

"EEK!" Rakka jumped as Hikari's scream startled her. She looked up at Kinza.

Then it struck her. If he was now a giant to her… she slowly looked down.

Right next to her left foot was a tiny Hikari. She gasped and held her breath as she gingerly moved her shoe away.

"What sort of madness is this?" Katherine asked at the oddly mis-proportioned situation they were in.

"Beelzebub," Gabrella sighed. "We are in a dimensional trap set up by some minor demon," she explained. "Each of us will have to retrace our movements back to where we started to regain our proper perspectives to one another."

Hikari was sitting on the ground looking up at all of them. She looked down between her legs and found a tiny giggling face staring back at her.

"Koni!" she exclaimed as she gently picked up the palm-sized baby.

"Do you remember which way you came Hikari?" Kinza asked.

"N-no," she replied. "And how am I supposed to fix this? I can't leave Koni here to retrace my steps!"

Kinza huffed. "Are you sure about this?" he asked the already small Demon-Goddess who was sitting on his shoulder. "I mean, they both sound like they are standing beside me, not tiny little things below me."

Gabrella thought a moment. "Reach out with your paw," she suggested.

Kinza looked down and saw Rakka looking up at him. He saw her position relative to him and stretched his arm out. He then closed his eyes and grabbed at something in the air.

Rakka felt a tug on her right shoulder. She looked over and placed her hand on something that she could see was making her shirt wrinkle slightly. She felt a furry hand.

Kinza opened his eyes and glanced at Gabrella. She seemed a bit redder than before.

"Someone is playing me for the fool," she snarled. "This is an illusion of sight, not perspective." She snapped her fingers. Kinza looked back to find his paw now resting on Rakka's shoulder with Rakka attached. They both looked down to see Hikari and the baby, but found her being dragged off to their side into the dark void.

"Help! Help! Help!" she screamed as a pair of green demons had her by the shoulders and were sliding her along. Koni remained snug in her arms.

"Just WHERE do you think you're TAKING HER!" Gabrella thundered before Kinza could utter the same words. The two demons stopped and shivered. They looked back over their shoulders at her.

"Mistress, why are you so small?" the one on Hikari's right asked.

"We did not see you before mistress," the other one hissed nervously.

Gabrella snapped a glare at her rival on Rakka's shoulder. "That actually is a good question," she quipped. "Why are we still so small?"

Katherine harrumphed and snapped her fingers. When she looked back, the Demon-Goddess was still glaring at her from the top of Kinza's left arm, and she was still on standing of Rakka's.

"I needed to get us through that small portal intact," she now nervously stated as she snapped her fingers a few more times and still got no results. She reached up and touched her multi-clipped chain earring.

"Hey, don't even think of that!" Gabrella shouted. "Especially here!"

"What?" Kinza asked. "What is that?"

"Blasted rookie," Gabrella snarled. She flung her hair back to show her own earring dangling from the left side of her face. "Our limiters," she now growled with disgust. "A by-product of this treaty we live under."

"Ah, yes, I forgot about those," the security chief said. "I find it odd though that you folks could still detonate a good part of this sector with one thought with one of those things on, but still find that still too constraining."

"I could destroy this entire universe!" Gabrella shouted then caught herself.

"That wouldn't leave you much for your father to attempt to rule over, would it?" Kinza noted as he stepped between the two demons with Hikari and wherever they were headed. "So what is the problem Katherine?"

She seemed a bit fidgety. "I… I don't know. My powers seemed strained here – depleted…"

"And just where is here?" Rakka demanded.

Gabrella looked about. "Well, we're not in the Demon's Gate. The green aura is gone."

Kinza sniffed. "And I smell a bit of… I think that's sulfur… in the air."

The twin demons got a face-full of the tiny Gabrella. "We're on the outskirts, aren't we?" she rumbled through them.

They swallowed. "Orders, ma'am… we are just following orders," they whimpered.

Kinza rolled his eyes. "Belkar's beard… Katherine, remove one clip from your limiter."

"WHAT!" Gabrella screamed. She found one of Kinza's clawed fingers gently tapping her forehead.

"You want to be doll sized forever?" he asked her. "Those limiters, as you put it, are also stabilizers and containment controls for when you're in the other's territory. Since you said we're close to Torval's Lock, then I'll assume that Katherine's containment shield has kicked in, and is preventing her from using power to restore you two."

"But, I would be breaking the rules if I remove any of the restraints," Katherine said with a shaky twitter in her voice.

"Only for the briefest of moments," Kinza explained, "and you'll clip it back into place once you've done what you need to do, right?"

Katherine teased at the earring. "Umm, yes?"

"YES," Kinza added with a bit more emphasis. "Besides, I bet you'll find that your powers will return to you once you're normal size. You're actually using energy to have yourselves so small. It ain't natural!"

Katherine nervously pulled on the one chained strand, which slid a clip off the lobe of her ear. A rumble growled around them. She looked about waiting for something to happen.

"Easy, commander," Kinza said to calm her. "We don't need to drag the Seventh Realm down here by setting off your internal security alarm."

Katherine looked shocked at the security officer. "I didn't… did I?" she stammered. "Oh dear, I think I did… just a moment…" She strained herself as she sent out a telepathic call of restraint. She then let out a sigh of relief.

"Rookie," Gabrella snarled. A moment later, she found herself full sized again on Kinza's shoulder. He was not ready for the suddenly large demon being there. He tipped over and they landed in a heap at Hikari's feet. Koni giggled from her arms.

"I'm sorry," Katherine said as she quickly re-clipped the dangling strand back to her ear.

Kinza waved his paw about as he stood up and assisted Gabrella to her feet. "No problem. I'm sure you've got one hell of a learning curve to deal with right now." He then turned his attention onto the two demons on either side of Hikari. They shrunk back.

"Okay you two, spill it!" he growled. "You said that you were ordered to take Koni – BY WHOM?"

The simple fact that the angry glare was not only coming from the enraged Tomassamassa, but also by the senior Demon-Goddess hanging over his shoulder made them quiver and shrink some more.

"Bottom!" the one on the left squeaked.

"Yea, yea, a bottom!" the other agreed. "A real feeder!"

"Someone at the end of the chain!" the first one added.

Kinza looked at Gabrella with a perplexed expression. "Have you any idea what they are yammering about?"

"Chain? Are you people still using the chain allegory?" Katherine asked her before she could answer Kinza.

Gabrella grunted as she snarled at the two squirming underlings. "It's a reference to the powers that be," she said. "The proverbial tug-of-war, so to say. On one end - the HEAVEN end - would be YOUR father." She added a jabbing poke at her rival. "On the other would be MY father."

"The HELL end," Kinza added for her.

"Yes," Katherine said, "and this chain between them is long. And for every link towards the center is a level of strength, and to where the weakest links dwell. With the most powerful strengths on either end, having the weakest in the middle is a bad analogy, and the reason why we don't use it any longer, as there are plenty of strong souls who are situated there."

"Your captain is an example of one of these," Gabrella continued. "That is why they consider the Denivan a good moderating source. It is their duty to police both ends of the chain. And there are others in this central area."

"Let me guess, the Phoenix Guild? Celestials?" Kinza asked.

"Very good, Mr. Kinza." Katherine complimented. "Did you deduce that?"

Kinza shook his head. "It wasn't hard. I've been hearing him grouse about those two for the last few weeks. As for the chain analogy, I don't think it's too bad a model. I'd like to hear more about it."

Gabrella foisted the two demons by the scruffs of their necks and dragged them away from Hikari. "Well, as these two mentioned, a 'bottom' refers to those who dwell within this area of the chain, which is not the end that our fathers reside, but actually the other end – the one pointing towards the center of the links – the divide that keeps our two sides apart."

"So the Denivan, the Phoenix Guild and Celestials reside in this central 'bottom' area?" Kinza asked.

Gabrella nodded as she plopped the two squirming runts at his feet. "As do all other beings of the worlds of the living."

Rakka felt a shiver run up her spine. "Living? What do you mean by that? Aren't you alive?"

Gabrella looked at her puzzled. "Well now that's an interesting question," she said while tapping her chin with a finger. "I certainly would consider myself alive." She glanced over at Katherine and snorted. "I guess we'd have to say the same for you."

The goddess cleared her throat. "Different levels will perceive life in their own way."

"Different levels?" Hikari asked.

"Different levels of existence," Kinza surmised.

Katherine bowed slightly towards him. "Correct, though deep down, you would still find the beating of a heart." She gave Gabrella a return glance. "Somewhere…"

Kinza scratched his temple. "Maybe, but in the case of you two, it's more like an energy pump."

The Goddess and Demon looked at him with a bit of incredulous shock. "Energy pumps?" they asked in chorus. They saw him tapping his head.

"I see things differently than humans or humanoids," he explained. "And yes, I guess if we were to slice and dice, we'd probably find those hearts you mentioned. But to me, you two, especially in this dark place, have an aura around you of pure energy. Sorry if it makes it sound a bit cold, but that's science for you."

"What about us?" Hikari asked a bit shyly. "What do you see when you look at us?"

Kinza laughed. "Well, you three shocked me at first," he said.

"Shocked?" Rakka asked.

He scratched his cheek. "To me, you looked like normal humans. No extraordinary auras, glows or visuals… at least not at first. I only saw you as humanoids that happen to have wings on their backs. But once I got a better look at you, there was an aura emanating from your heads. It seems to support that donut you've got hanging there."

Gabrella twanged Rakka's halo. "That reminds me," she directed at the goddess behind her, "where is your ring of obedience?"

Katherine scowled at her. "It is NOT a ring of OBEDIENCE!" she snapped. "And I have mine right here!" She lifted the golden band up from the top of her head revealing her own ring. But when she attempted to reinsert it within her hair, it stubbornly refused to go.

"Oh, Gabby, I wish you hadn't done that!" Kinza harped. "Now she's going to stick out like a sore thumb!"

Katherine was slightly in a panic. "Why won't it got back in?" she repeatedly yelped as she struggled with her wayward halo.

"I would guess that the answer would be location, location and location," Kinza suggested. "The halo represents a link to the attic. And while you're down here, your internal systems are asking for a stronger signal…"

"So her antenna is stuck in the 'up' position?" Gabrella snickered then burst into hard laughter. Katherine turned scarlet with rage.

"I'm going to take you to Heaven to see if your horns grow!" she flustered.

Rakka, who did not take kindly to the twanging of her own floating ring, stepped between the two women. "Now wait a minute, I need some explaining!" she demanded. "What about this chain thing? How can a 'bottom' that is from the end of this chain be from the middle?"

Kinza cleared his throat. "It's an analogy," he explained. "Both sides have a section of this chain – an attic section, and a basement section. But there is the third section that is between the two outer units, hence the reason why these 'ends' actually point at each other, am I correct?"

Gabrella nodded in agreement. "And to some," she emphasized towards the two demons at his feet, "this area is considered beneath them…"

"Which is another reason why the chain analogy is no longer used," Katherine added. "When people like the Denivan, the Celestials, or even humans reside within this section, who is it to say that they are bottom feeders, when they actually have the strength to defeat us?"

Gabrella seemed on the verge of saying "Us?" when she realized that what had taken most of the attacking angels out back when the sites had been created could have easily done the same to her demons, she quickly withdrew the comment. She cleared her throat instead.

"One way or the other, even the high and sort-of-mighty Corporation still refers to the chain analogy," she noted.

"Seven Jewels! Seven Jewels!" the two demons cheered. They withered back again when she snapped a glare at them.

"Ah," Kinza said as he realized what they meant. "I thought that referred to a necklace."

"Huh?" Hikari asked in confusion. A chime from Kinza's pocket alerted them that they were about to breach some cardinal rule.

Kinza rolled his eyes and sighed as he tapped the com patch. "S.A.M., they all ready know that there are other Holy Sites. The Haibane Sol who is living with them is from Tripoli, and they know that."

The computerized sentinel chirped and remained silent, having had its thunder quashed before it could strike.

"In the chain theory," Katherine continued, "the section between the two outer ones is not just a straight line – there are many links that hang from it. And in the center is a section known as the Seven Jewels. It is described as a fine necklace that dangles from iron links."

"You have Tripoli as its center, as it is the largest of the Holy Sites," Kinza said. "On either side are Lucerne and Glie/Guri, Kanto beside Glie, Reykjavik across from that, and Delhi and Sydney on the outer section. And these seven places are where you Haibane are dropped into on your way to… well either up or down, whichever way you're headed."

Rakka nearly staggered back a bit. "There are seven places like Glie?" An image of the southern slews gates flashed through her head. "So, you mean that if Koi had passed through the south gates in the cavern, he would have wound up in Sol's home?"

Kinza scratched an ear. "Umm, I don't know about that – Sol came from Tripoli, and she wound up in your town. I would think you'd more likely wind up in Kanto, but from what I remember of the interlinks between the sites I've read, it's a bit more complicated than that. Besides, that's not what's being pointed out here."

"Then what IS being pointed out here?" Rakka demanded.

"If this is a tug-of-war," Kinza stated, "and the necklace of the Seven Jewels is in the middle, then you are the subject of this battle."

"And Koni?" asked Hikari clutching the baby.

"She is a wild card," Gabrella stated. "She is a free soul that either side could claim and have equal rights over. Even her vessel is neutral."

Katherine stepped up and pointed at Koni. "Halo and wings!" she barked.

Gabrella sneered. "Look again, dearie – only wings. That ring of yours isn't there on her. And it wouldn't be too difficult to swap feathers for leather. Besides, even those metal want-to-be halos these two are spinning over their heads can be plucked like loose down. This soul could go either way, because it's free, without a care in this world, and no predetermined place to go. As much as you might dislike it, THAT'S how the Treaty of Set has it set up!"

"Set! Set! Set!" the two demons chanted.

"Don't cheer him!" Gabrella snapped. "If he hadn't been so busy trying to take apart his brother, we wouldn't be stuck with this ridiculous treaty of his!"

"Fine – swell – great!" Hikari nervously stammered. "Mr. Kinza, how do we get out of here? I'm feeling cold, and I'm sure this isn't good for Koni."

Rakka looked about the darkness. She felt the cold as well. But it was not a chill caused by the temperature. It was familiar to her – almost as if she were… _exposed…_

"SUITS!" she chirped.

Everyone looked at her with a puzzled expression.

"The suits!" she repeated. "We should be in the cloaks I wear down in the catacombs! They are needed to protect us from what might come up and get us!"

Kinza dug into the pocket of his pants and pulled out the pendant he had used on the spirit of Kuu earlier. He slipped it over Hikari and the baby. He then pulled a second one off his own neck and draped it over Rakka.

"Actually," he said as he started setting the power levels on the two Doorknob devices, "those suits block all energy, including that of the attic. Again, per the treaty, when you're down there, you're supposed to go in as a neutral. These will work in the same way."

As he twiddled with the dial on the Doorknob while scanning them with his rod, he noticed odd glares from the goddess and the demon.

"Okay, what's with you two?" he asked while working between the three Haibane.

"Mr. Kinza! I would have never thought of YOU as working for her side!" Katherine snarled.

The Tomassamassa looked bemused. Before he could say anything though…

"MY SIDE!" Gabrella jumped in. "Hardly! Just look at what he's doing to them! And HERE of all places!"

Rakka looked at Hikari – she could not see anything out of the ordinary, and neither could Hikari see any of her either.

Kinza crossed his arms and snorted. "Okay, what are you seeing?"

Katherine pointed at Rakka with a nearly shaking accusing finger. "I see a demonic red glow!"

"Red?" Gabrella questioned her. "That's not red! That's your accursed holy white light that you spew whenever you start sprouting your wings or some other connecting you do with that place you're from!"

They then noticed the blunt and almost grumpy look that the Tomassamassa was giving them.

"What you are seeing is the Doorknob's energy shield deflecting off the energy that is trying to enter into them from their surroundings," Kinza stated. "And I'm surprised by just how much you can see here, Miss Gabrella, seeing how close to your home we are."

"It's probably being redirected to them by her!" she snarled with a lizard-like hiss.

"It probably was, which is just as well, as that protects you from violating the treaty, now doesn't it?" Kinza pointed out. "Even-Steven, as the humans say. So, now that we've settled that problem, why not solve the other? Let's find a way back to Glie so that we don't violate the treaty further, ea?"

"Don't you want to find out who it was who ordered this kidnapping?" Katherine scolded him.

Kinza glared at her. "My job right now is the safety of these three while they are down here. Yes, I would LOVE to know who that was, but that's a job for the Phoenix Guild, not me!"

"Bottom feeder! Bottom feeder!" the two demons called, causing Gabrella to swat them over their heads to silence them.

"Unless it was one of them…" Kinza noted from the imp's reaction. "Bottom feeders – isn't that what you would call a member of the Phoenix Guild?"

"Members of the Denivan too!" the left demon yelped.

Gabrella snagged the two demons by the scruff of their necks and lifted them to her face.

"Since when do we take orders from outside sources, gentlemen?" she asked them through gritted teeth. "Describe this bottom feeder."

"Well… ah… He… he… heeeeeEEEEEEEEE E!" the left demon squealed. He seemed to shrivel like a raisin. He then crumbled to sand.

"I won't say!" the other demon chirped as bits of its companion bounced off his dangling feet. "We promised we would not say!"

"What happened to it?" Hikari asked as she shielded Koni from the dusty spray.

"It was cursed," Katherine stated as she examined the pile that had formed on the ground.

"See? See? I will not say!" cried the other demon.

"You don't have to son," Kinza told him. "You narrowed it down pretty well."

"Narrowed?" Rakka asked.

Kinza nodded. "The Denivan does not curse. Neither does the Phoenix Guild for that matter. That leaves only Celestials."

Katherine looked at the security officer with concern. "Can a Celestial curse?"

Kinza shrugged. "I don't know," he said. "I've never seen one up close enough to find out. The best I would be able to do is ask an expert." He then turned and looked at Gabrella.

"Oh sure, ask the demon like I'd know!" she complained. "How should I know if a Celestial can curse or not?"

"The fact that it was the basement that suggested to the Phoenix Guild to use Celestials as guards during the negotiations for the Treaty of Set?" Kinza suggested. Gabrella stared at him.

"How the HEAVEN did you know that?" she asked him. "You actually found that out during your prep work?"

Kinza scratched his ear as he looked about. "Amazing just what you have to buck up on for a mission, ain't it? Are we missing something?"

Gabrella looked at her clawed hand – the demon she had been holding by the scruff of its neck had vanished. She snorted some steam as she looked around them to see where it had gone to. She then snapped a glare on the baby in Hikari's arms.

"YOU! GET OUT OF THERE!" she demanded of the infant.

"What?" Hikari asked as she held Koni back from the grasp of the large red woman. "Get out of where? I don't understand!"

Rakka grabbed Koni as Hikari was occupied, starling her fellow Haibane. But when Hikari saw her holding the baby out at arm's length, she examined the infant more clearly.

It had a forked tongue, and red glowing eyes. She hissed, and her tiny wings beat savagely at the girl holding her out.

Kinza was not amused as he snagged the flickering tongue and yanked. Hikari was thinking it might hurt the baby, but was surprised when the Tomassamassa had an imp demon dangling from his paw, and Rakka had a surprised and stunned baby in hers.

"OW! OW! OW!" the imp was screaming.

"Serves you right!" Gabrella snarled. "I don't care if you're cursed or not, I want the name of who sent you to get that baby!"

The imp sighed as it swung from its tongue like soap-on-a-rope. "Name I can not gwive woo… Nevwer sween this Cewestiwal befowre."

"So it wasn't Amethyst? Have you ever seen Amethyst?" Kinza asked.

It shook its head. "Nowt Amafwist. Have sween Amafwist before. Nowt him."

"You know, it might be easier to understand him if he weren't swinging from his tongue," Katherine noted.

"Yea, but this just might be what's saving him from the curse," Kinza replied. "It must be a spoken hex, which sometimes means verbally saying words that are understood BY the spell… otherwise we'd be dealing with demon dust by now."

"HOW do you know about these things?" Gabrella asked again, this time in a more flabbergasted way.

"My captain has a big library," Kinza smirked. "How is she?" he asked Rakka of the baby.

"She seems okay," she answered as she handed her back to Hikari. But as the exchange was being made, the ground under them seemed to vanish. It was strange though – they never felt like they lost their footing. It was the way the others had flown away and how the wind briefly whipped their hair that made them feel like they had dropped.

Kinza tossed the demon at the spot where the girls had been and saw it bounce. There was no hole in the dark ground.

"Parism Gate!" Gabrella snarled. "Someone high up just took them!"

Katherine crossed her arms. "Why would that worry you?" she asked.

The Demon-Goddess glared at her. "Because I AM one of those higher ups, and I don't know what's going on!" she snapped back. "Remember, I am the head of communications between our respective houses."

"Can you follow them?" Kinza asked her.

She pointed at the spot the girls had vanished from. "You mean with another Parism? I could, but it wouldn't help. Parism Gates are non-traceable."

Just then there was a brilliant flash of light behind her.

She looked back over her shoulder a bit bewildered. "Or… we could just follow where that flash of light just came from, because I sense that they just broke that charm somehow…"

Rakka and Hikari found themselves skidding along the smooth ground, their clothes smoldering slightly, as they coughed and wheezed. Hikari was wrapped around Koni while Rakka held onto both of their Haibane halos with her hands.

"Hey!" they heard from the distance. "Are you guys all right?"

Rakka could just barely see Kinza hobbling along towards them on his bum leg. She laid down on her back and gasped for air.

"What… what was that?" she gagged.

Kinza staggered up to her, just as out of breath having force-dragged his injured leg along. "According to our friend Gabby here, you were just taken for a ride through a Parism Gate, whatever the heck that is. How did you break it?"

Rakka tried to reassemble what had happen in her mind. "We fell… sort of… I guess…" she boggled through. "We were being dragged along when I thought I heard Koi's voice."

"Koi?" Katherine asked as she arrived. "What did he say to you?"

Rakka rubbed the back of her neck. "He told me to grab our halos."

Katherine and Kinza looked at one another and nodded. "Smart boy," she said. "He had you activate one of the few self-defense items a Haibane has. The light leaves that make up your halo create a shield against demonic auras. Grabbing them directly causes them to harden that barrier."

"Yea, but you're lucky you didn't twist your heads off doing that!" Kinza noted as the girls were rubbing their necks after nearly wrenching them free of their bodies. Not having a halo yet, Koni seemed oblivious to what had happened to her sisters. She hiccupped.

Back in the courtyard of Old Home, Dr. McManus was requesting backup for all the new walking wounded, including the two smoldering Haibane who had just trundled in with what scanned as near whiplash issues.

Ptolemy watched the three remaining Kinzas in scientific curiosity. He found the paradoxes interesting to watch.

"Claudius, give me a hand, would you?" the Kinza who looked like the one who had just vanished down the unauthorized Demon's Gate asked him. "I know you're about to have to return to your office, but we need to figure out the best choice here."

"HALOS!" Koi suddenly shouted from his seat as he awoke from all he had just gone through. He looked at the startled expressions around himself. He felt a bandage on his forehead and a sizable lump underneath.

"Halo to you too," the Kinza nearest him said.

"What is this?" he asked. "What have I done now?"

Rakka bent down and gave him a smoky smile. She then gave him a gentle kiss to the cheek.

"You saved us," she told him. "Thank you."

"Yes, thank you," Hikari added, and kissed his other cheek. They then sat on either side of him on the lounge chair and quickly nodded off to sleep with him thoroughly confused between them.

"You know, they both smell really bad," he whispered. "Where the hell have they been?"

"Exactly," the near Kinza commented, leaving him still confused.

The one in the borrowed shirt whistled. "Okay, let's get to business on this temporal incursion gentlemen!" he announced. "As you know, I am the new 0-0 Breakpoint, and you two are my eeeevil doppelganger alternates. I need reference points, your reports, and your tailors – why do both of you have my uniform? Shouldn't you two be dressed like me?"

The two uniformed officers looked at one another. "I we're both from your future," the one on the left told him.

"Yes, one of Dr. McManus' orderlies will bring a new uniform to you in the next day or so," the other one added. The left one nodded in agreement.

"Good!" 0-0 Kinza sighed. "These are okay," he said tugging on his current shirt, "but they're so pedestrian, and the wing holes let in a draft. Okay… relevancies?"

"I am from stardate 0708.172," the left one said as he handed 0-0 his paperwork. "You continue with your current operation with only a minor alternate deviation of… well, you'll see…" He gestured to the papers.

"He can't do that!" the right one burst. "The result will be catastrophic!"

"HEY!" 0-0 scolded him. "You know better than that! No arguing with yourself! Now then… relevance!"

The right Kinza snapped-to. "Sorry sir," he excused himself. "I am from stardate 0708.183. You will continue with your mission as stated, but also start working on this." He handed him his paperwork.

0-0 Kinza looked at the two packets of paper handed to him. "I never realized how much I couldn't follow the Observers rules on these encounters," he grumbled to Ptolemy. "Gentlemen, why is it, when the rule is that we be able to present our argument on ONE page, we seem to like to WRITE BOOKS!"

"Because we never liked the idea that a situation like this could be explained in just one page," the left Kinza said with the right nodding in agreement.

"Yea, that's until you've got to READ them!" 0-0 groused. "I'm surprised that there are only two of you."

"Actually, we started out with about eighty three total," the senior Kinza noted, "but we whittled to down to just us two."

0-0 stared at them. "Wow… that's a pretty big number… and Captain Strom whittled you down?"

"Actually, the Captain is indisposed right now," the other Kinza said. "He's with Gather Damon at the mediation tribunal between the Attic and the Basement."

Ptolemy looked at his watch. "They should be grinding away at it alright," he commented. "I'm sure Dante is enjoying himself right now."

Dante sneezed as a few feathers floated over his head. An irate member of the Attic side had just finished berating the leader of the Basement's delegation, and he seemed to be molting.

"So Mr. Button weeded you out," 0-0 stated. They nodded. "Well, he is a sensitive…"

"If you wish to read through them quicker," the left Kinza advised, "the first twelve pages are the same in each report."

"Except the title page," the right one added.

0-0 sighed and handed one copy to Ptolemy. "Tell me when you get to page twelve."

Kana and Nemu watched the scene around them. 0-0 Kinza had given them the now grown Koni so they could clean her up. She now had shoulder length brown hair and was wrapped in what looked like the remains of Rakka's sweater. Her wings were sooty as was the rest of her.

"Do we have anything that will fit her?" Kana asked as they headed for the dorms.

"We'll ask the housemother," Nemu suggested and headed upstairs to the guest room.

The housemother was seated on the edge of the bed all panicky. "They took her!" she yelped as Kana and Nemu entered. "Those demons took Hikari, Rakka and the baby!"

Kana held Koni up. "And now she's back!" she exclaimed. "Come on, we need to clean her up!"

The housemother pointed at the child. "That… that's Koni? That's not a baby…"

"Nope, now we have a toddler to deal with," Kana said avoiding a few giggling kicks the child was doing. "And since she's seemed to have learned to walk, we're in for one wild bath!"

Koi gave up attempting to rouse the two slumbering girls as they had draped themselves across his body. Rakka was against his left shoulder and Hikari was out like a light across his legs. He was well pinned.

"Where in the world did you two go?" he asked quietly, not expecting any answer. "I seem vaguely to remember seeing you falling…"

"Ummm… you told me to grab our halos," Rakka groggily answered him. "It caused us to break away from whatever it was that had hold of us. It was also the first thing that singed us, thank you very much!" She gave him a playful 'punch' to the side.

"Ow!" he laughed. "Do you mind? You two are getting heavy!"

"I don't wanna," Rakka said as she snuggled in. "You're comfortable!"

Koi plopped his head against the chair's pillow and sighed. "So what happened after that?" he asked her.

Kinza helped the two Haibane to their feet, brushing a few stray embers off their clothes.

"Where did these come from?" Rakka complained as she swatted a few that were starting to hurt.

"Exiting that Parism the way you did caused it," Gabrella told her as she assisted. "It forms a tube-like wall around you – kind of like a slow fall down a well. When you grabbed that… halo…" She gritted her teeth and stood back away from the offending ring over Rakka's head. "…It forcibly broke you out. It was a bit explosive."

"That would explain the melted heel on my shoe," Hikari said.

"You owe her a pair of shoes when we get out of here," Kinza told Gabrella as he pulled his patch communicator out of his pocket. "I'm going to see if I can get some help here."

"That won't work down here," Gabrella laughed. "You're well out of range…"

"S.A.M. Systems Relay Services!" the patch responded. Kinza grinned.

"You're never too far from a S.A.M. Systems unit, my dear," he smirked. "Nightwatch, buddy… do you hear me?"

She was about to berate him until she heard who he was calling. "Ooh, well, if you want to call him in, go right ahead! I won't stop you!"

Kinza scowled at her. "You're married!" he barked.

"Mated," she corrected him. "We don't have marriage like you heavenly types!" she shot at the goddess.

"Maybe you should TRY it, and maybe you'll truly believe in the sanctity of the act!" Katherine snapped back at her. "Even if you are only 'mated' to your betrothed, to lust after someone else is a sin!"

"That's me – calendar girl for the sinner's side!" Gabrella sneered. "Get off your holier-than-thou act, lady! You're in MY world now! DEAL WITH IT!"

"Nightwatch here," the patch replied. Kinza was watching the two bickering deities and shaking his head.

"Oh please tell me you can follow this signal here to assist us," he pleaded.

"Just a moment," Nightwatch said through the patch. "Interesting. I would ask what you are doing two leagues from Torval's Lock, but in a place like the Holy Sites, with all these Demon's Gates appearing lately, I should not be surprised."

"We're not here willingly, believe me," Kinza groused. "Any chance of using some of that special knowledge to assist us out of here? HEY YOU TWO!"

The Goddess and Demon stopped sniping at one another and looked at the Tomassamassa.

"There's a time and place – THIS ISN'T IT!" he chastised them. "What was that Nightwatch? I couldn't hear you for a moment…"

Rakka edged towards Katherine. "Nightwatch… isn't he that very tall man who was with us when we lost Striker Aries?" she whispered to her.

"Indeed," she told her. "He is a Chevarian. A very rare, extremely mystical creature. It is a pleasure to have him here with us."

"Is he another one of these 'bottoms'?" Hikari asked.

Katherine blinked and looked at her. So did Gabrella. Then they both broke out in laughter.

"Oh, what he would do if he heard someone call him a 'bottom'!" Gabrella giggled.

"Oh yes!" Katherine agreed. "Oh my, that would be… unwise!"

There was a brief moment as the two ladies pondered just how 'unwise' it was. This was followed by huge laughing fits that Rakka and Hikari could not fathom.

"I guess you just have to know him," Rakka noted to herself and Hikari.

Kinza folded the patch and stuffed it into his pocket as he watched the two ladies laughing. "First they're at each other's throats, and then they're having giggling fits! Scraggin' nuts!"

"So, is Mr. Nightwatch going to help us?" Hikari asked.

Kinza shrugged. "He's going to try – the nearest portal zone he can get to is over near the Lock."

"Lock?" Rakka asked.

Gabrella grinned at her. "The Gates of Hell to you. Mr. Kinza's people call it Torval's Lock."

Kinza straightened his shirt. "So, what's it like at this time of year?" he asked her.

She pondered it a bit. "Hot," she replied. "But then again, it always is."

"Now then, before we head over there," Kinza glared at her more seriously, "what will your true purpose there be? We all know your side wants Koni – so does Katherine's. What are your true motives, ma'am?"

The humor faded from Gabrella's face. "I told you before," she coldly stated. "I think it is best that you keep her neutral in this. As surprising as it might seem, I am truly on your side, Mr. Kinza Farley. What is happening here is unfortunate, but not entirely unexpected. As the communications contact between hell and heaven, I take offence that a plan like this was not sent through me first."

"Would you have condoned it?" Katherine asked bluntly.

"I would have nixed it," Gabrella shot back. "It is not productive, nor do I believe they would know what to do with her. Look at her. She just had a demon inside her. Does she look like it affected her? You, a mere mortal, were able to yank it out without harming her, as if she were just a bottle. Personally, I think she is a danger to us."

Kinza took Koni from Hikari's arms and rubbed his big cat-nose against hers which made her giggle. "Dangerous? You? Only if you poop! How can she be a danger to you?"

Gabrella thought for a moment. She then reached down and took Rakka's hand.

"OH!" the Haibane yelped.

"You felt that, didn't you?" the demon asked her. "You, who have cast off her sins, can feel the difference when I hold your hand, correct?"

Rakka shook her fingers. "It felt all tingly. Like a static shock."

"Are you sure it isn't because of this thing Mr. Kinza hung on us?" Hikari asked as she waved the Doorknob device by its chain.

"It's not set to her frequency," he said. "Otherwise you wouldn't be able to stand near her."

Gabrella smirked. "Now, take your friend's hand."

Hikari looked as if she were about to be electrocuted. She nervously took Rakka's right hand in hers. Gabrella then took Rakka's left.

"HIYEEE!" Hikari shrieked. She opened her eyes to see Rakka staring at her.

"It really isn't that bad," she told her.

"I can't help it," Hikari whimpered. "It startled me."

Gabrella huffed at her. "Now, give her the baby," she told Kinza.

The security officer pondered her a moment.

"Trust me," she assured.

He gently handed Koni back to Hikari.

"Now, make sure you're touching skin," Gabrella told the Haibane. As Hikari placed her hand on Koni's leg, the Demon-Goddess lightly took the baby's hand. "Do you feel anything?" she asked.

Hikari had clenched up expecting a shock. She then realized that nothing had happened and shook her head no.

"You, touch her arm," she told Rakka. She did as she was told.

"Nothing. I feel nothing," she reported.

"Maybe she turned whatever it is off," Hikari nearly accused. Gabrella reached over and grabbed Rakka's other hand again causing both girls to flinch. The baby still seemed unfazed.

Kinza was scanning them while this experiment was going on. "Serves you right," he jokingly admonished Hikari. "That would be impossible for someone with her amount of energy flowing through her. So, what do you think?" he asked Katherine.

"It could be because she hasn't received a halo yet," she speculated.

Kinza thought of that. "Hikari, hold her head up towards your halo, would you?" he asked her. He watched closely as she did. "Interesting… okay, thank you."

"Did you see anything?" Hikari asked him.

He stood in thought. "I saw nothing, which is the point. As I said earlier, I can see the energy between your head and that pseudo-halo you wear. Have you ever noticed that when you get close to one another, you slightly deflect each other's rings?"

Rakka and Hikari stood stumped for a moment. Rakka then leaned her head towards Hikari's halo, and sure enough, the pair angled back slightly.

"I've never noticed that before," she said with a bit of shock.

"It's all about electromagnetic fields and such," Kinza explained. "You can remove your halos, correct?"

"They'd get awfully dirty if we didn't clean them from time to time," Hikari said a bit indignantly.

Kinza smirked at the chiding. "Have you ever tried on someone else's halo?"

"You can't!" Rakka blurted loudly and then realized she had yelled that. "I mean, I accidentally tried Kana's halo once. It tossed me across the room."

"Exactly," the Tomassamassa stated. "When you got your halo, the energy that emanates from your head created the electromagnetic field that supports it. It also gives the metal and light leaves a magnetic charge that makes the halo unique to that individual. But I don't see that energy coming from Koni's head, and I certainly can't scan it."

"Which means?" the two confused Haibane asked him.

"She's a null," Gabrella pointed out in a blunt uncompassionate way.

Katherine nodded. "She's right. That makes her extremely rare. But it also makes her valuable to either side, as an unfettered soul."

"Yuck," Gabrella gagged. "Who wants an un-swaying soul? Besides, as a null, neither side could control her."

Kinza grunted. "Well someone down here thinks they can. Maybe you should drop in on Soltarn and see what your war chief is up to? You do outrank him, don't you?"

She just stood and glared at him. "I've given up trying to figure out how you know about these things," she hissed. "Well, I'll just have to find him to ask him then. He has to be around here somewhere..."

"How about that way?" Hikari asked. Kinza saw she was pointing behind him, but also saw that the slight red tinge that this world had been projecting on all of them was giving way to a glaring orange hue.

"Oh scragg," he mumbled as he glanced over his shoulder. A fireball was arcing over in the sky and was heading for them. He quickly calculated that it would fall short, but with this featureless smooth nothing they were standing in, it would probably skip the rest of the way. He grabbed the girls and leaped, pushing off with his good leg. The burning orb splattered as it struck and indeed scattered fiery chunks in the direction they had been.

"Gabby, get them to stop!" he yelled at the now floating Demon-Goddess as more flaming balls were being tossed at them. A few exploded en route, brought down by a bow and arrow manifested by Katherine. "I've got to get these three to the Lock!"

Gabrella acknowledged him and flew off in the direction the fireballs were coming from, followed by Katherine as she continued to down as many as possible. A few still landed close by as the girls got up and started to scamper in the opposite direction.

"THAT WAY! THAT WAY!" Kinza shouted as he tried his best to guide them. As he did, he suddenly saw them seemingly fly away into the air. It took him a moment to realize that it was actually himself falling, as he could see the fireballs lifting away as well, and that he was now trapped in a Parism Gate. He stopped attempting to run, folded his arms and waited for the end of the unexpected ride.

"Great… They're getting smarter. If you can't get the girls, get their protector!" he muttered to himself as he was swept away from them. "Now I wish I had one of those halos of theirs."

"Where did Mr. Kinza go!" shouted Hikari. Rakka spun about and saw they were now alone. She also saw that Katherine had missed one of the fireballs, and it was heading right for them.

"Back! BACK! BACK!" she shouted as she snagged Hikari's arm and yanked her a few feet back the way they had come. The fireball planted itself squarely where the three girls had been and spread in the direction they had been heading. They missed being struck by the burning embers, but were still covered with smoky hot ash as they rolled away.

"Koni! Is Koni okay?" Rakka asked as she lifted Hikari up.

Tears were streaming down her face. "She's fine," Hikari wept. "What about Mr. Kinza?"

Rakka shook her head as she kept an eye out for more fireballs. "I don't know. Maybe he fell down one of those wells like we fell down. Right now though, we have to protect this baby! Do you hear me? Hikari!" She shook her friend until she was wide-eyed and looking directly at her. She nodded.

"Good girl!" Rakka smiled. "Let's get going. Mr. Nightwatch should be that way."

A tall red-skinned satyr resplendent in a military uniform of ropes and epaulettes surveyed the bombardment his Twelfth Dragoon was doing. He saw that it had broken up the group and had captured one of the people. But he had not expected two of them to start flying. And the fliers seemed to be heading his way.

"Sir, what are your orders for dealing with these airborne threats?" he asked. "Sir?"

He lowered his spyglass and looked around. He seemed to be talking to himself.

"Now where did he run off to?" he pondered.

"SOLTARRRRRRRN!" he heard. He whirled back and raised his telescope towards the closest flyer.

"M – M'lady?" he squeaked.

The last thing he saw was a fist heading towards his eye.

An area of craggy rocks and a path that lead into them now greeted the girls while they dashed beyond the fireball's range as the ground finally gave way to something less flat.

"Are we there yet?" Hikari gasped as they slid behind a boulder.

"I have no idea," Rakka said through heavy heaves of breath. "What is a league anyway?"

Hikari had no time to answer, as something smashed the ground behind them causing them to be peppered by small rocks and dust.

"Do I want to look back?" Hikari asked through gritted teeth.

Rakka shook pebbles off her head. She slowly peeked over her shoulder. Standing behind them in the settling dust cloud about twenty feet stood a mammoth creature with the head of a bull and the body of a man. It bellowed out a roar that shook every stone around them.

"Oh g-god!" she shivered. She leapt up and grabbed Hikari and spun them around the rock. "M-MINOTAUR!"

"A what?" shrieked Hikari.

"Bull! Man! Mi-mi-MINOTAUR!" Rakka shouted.

Hikari clutched Koni tightly to her chest as she seemed to begin to hyperventilate. "How… how are we supposed to get around that!" she chirped.

A few stones rattled off the rock they had planted their backs against causing them to hold their breaths and stare back at the burning flats that they had just left behind. They heard heavy footsteps behind themselves. They prayed.

"Excuse me…"

The girls froze to the sounds of their own little squeaks.

"Excuse me!"

Rakka nervously managed to look up at the top of the rock. The head of the Minotaur was there looking down on them.

"I'm sorry, did we scare you two?" it asked.

"Y-YES!" they shouted back.

"Oh, I'm terribly sorry," it said. "My friend and I were just having a friendly game of Head Butt Smash, since the Twelfth Dragoon are using our Labyrinth Field for artillery practice."

"Wot is it Larry?" they then heard.

"Oh, we've got some ladies here that we spooked, Cecil!" he called back behind himself. "I certainly hope we didn't hurt you."

"You nearly scared us to death!" was all Hikari could get out through the shaking she was having.

"Oh, look! Birds!"

Rakka saw a second bull's head next to the first. "Birds? Where?" she asked nervously.

Larry gave his friend a cockeyed look. "He means girls," he explained.

"We don't see birds down 'ere too often, an' certainly not ones with rings over their 'eads like yours!" Cecil exclaimed. "Are they like mine?" He started to flick the nose ring he had protruding from above his lip which made a slight ting sound when he did.

"They're not rings, Cecil!" Larry said. "They're halos! Hey, are you angels? If you are, you've certainly landed in the wrong place!"

"W-we're not angels," Rakka told them. "We're Haibane!"

Larry scratched his ear. "'aibane? Wot da 'eck is a 'aibane? You sure yer not an angel?"

The girls shook their wide-eyed heads.

"Good! We 'hate those!" Cecil said.

"'Sides, look at their wings – look at the quality of the rings that make up their halos," Larry stated. "They'd never be able to fly with those! So, what brings you here to our rocky brain-smashing venue?"

"W-we're trying to g-get to Torval's Lock… I mean…" Rakka stammered.

"Torval's Lock?" Larry bellowed.

"TORVAL'S LOCK!" Cecil barked as well. Rakka and Hikari winced and expected the worst.

"I haven't heard the Gate called Torval's Lock in centuries, have you Cecil?"

Cecil now scratched the other ear. "Not since that nice Canadian bloke dropped in on us. We ate 'im!"

"Still don't know why some guy from Canada would know about Torval's Lock, being that's a Tomassian word," Larry added.

"Still, 'e tasted better th'n that bloke from Pennsylvania," Cecil reminisced. "And anythin' was better th'n the dude from Daytona Beach! Too much sand… PLAA!"

"True – I'm still getting' the grit out of my teeth," Larry agreed. "So anyway, if you follow this path that way about a league, you'll find the gate. Just look out for the speed demons down there – they were a bit noisy this mornin'."

The girls still could only stare at the two Minotaurs for a brief moment. They finally managed to get their legs to agree to stand up.

"You're… you're not going to eat us?" Rakka asked which caused Hikari to wince again expecting the worst.

"Eat you? Why would we want to eat you?" Larry asked.

"You eat men!" she replied since for some reason that little bit of trivia had flashed in her mind from a book she had read in the town's library.

"Pwaa! Of course we eat men! We're Minotaurs!" Larry laughed. "But we won't eat you! You're girls!"

Rakka and Hikari just stared. "Not to ask something stupid, but why is that?" Rakka questioned. Hikari elbowed her.

Cecil sniffed. "Me mum's a girl! I wouldn't eat me mum!"

"Aw, now look at what you've done! You've made him cry!" Larry said as he comforted his companion. "You hurry along now. By the way, I certainly hope there's someone waiting for you there."

"We're supposed to meet Mr. Nightwatch there," Hikari said not realizing she had joined Rakka in arbitrarily blurting things out as she was in a state of near panic.

"Ah, good ol' Nightwatch! Now there's a great bloke!" Cecil cheered up. "Oy, tell 'im 'i from Cecil an' Larry, ey?"

The Haibane trio slowly crept down the path away from what they thought was their last moments in this world. But in situations like these, sense sometimes leaves one's mind. Rakka stopped and turned to ask "Excuse me, but Mr. Nightwatch is a man, isn't he? Why don't you eat him?"

Hikari flinched and gritted her teeth.

The two Minotaurs burst out laughing. "'im!" Cecil chortled.

"Why would we want to eat that Chevarian horse-meat?" Larry guffawed. "Besides, we need to beat him at Head Butt Smash!"

"I 'ear its sweet meat though," Cecil pondered. That got him a swat from his partner's forearm.

"NO EATING OUR BUDS!" Larry reminded him as Cecil rubbed his shoulder. "Didn't you learn anything when you felt peckish after you butt smashed that Tyson dude? Sure, you knocked him out, but you didn't need to eat him afterwards! He still owed me 10 credits!"

"Yea, but 'e tasted like chicken!" Cecil complained.

Rakka numbly nodded and returned to walking down the path with Hikari grabbing her by the arm. "Stop TALKING to them!" she hissed as she forcibly quickened their steps.

Just a few yards further down the path, the moment finally caught up with their legs. They stumbled over to a set of rocks with a nice little crevice in it and allowed their knees to collapse. Both girls felt their eyes roll back as they passed out from the near shock they had just gone through.

The baby fidgeted a bit, rousing Hikari finally. She blearily opened her eyes.

"Nano?" a green face asked her at rather close range. It had huge yellow eyes with tiny little black pupils.

It also had gathered Koni up.

It took only a moment for it to register in her mind that this thing was trying to take the baby. Hikari started to scream, but for some reason, it seemed deep and drawn out to her. She attempted to reach for Koni, but either this little demon was extremely fast, or she was moving extremely slow for some reason. To add to the surrealism of it all, it spun and headed away with the child, but instead of running off, it seemed to only walk really fast.

Rakka stirred. Her head was banging from the stress she had just tried to rest off. She managed to look over at Hikari and saw a strange sight.

"Iiiit tooook ththththeeee baaaaabbby," Hikari said in a long drawn-out deep voice, and she seemed to be moving extremely slow.

Rakka looked down and saw the imp-like creature calmly walking away with Koni.

"Hey! Stop!" Hikari suddenly heard Rakka squeak next to her and then watched her rapidly jump up and chase after the little thing that was carrying Koni away. They were zipping back and forth across her field of vision like some silly cartoon. Then Rakka came to a halt.

"Where?" she asked in a normal voice to Hikari. "Where did it go?"

Hikari pointed up the path where she could still see the creature rapidly moving away. "That way!" she yelped as she jumped. The girls started to give chase as fast as they could.

"Let me get this straight," Gabrella asked the smoldering remains of her mate, "you decided that you'd follow the orders of some Celestial just because it SAID to do something?"

"Honestly," Soltarn said through his bloodied and weeping face, "it felt like the right thing to do! After all, the order was from the Phoenix Guild, right?"

Gabrella sparked. "Any order like that would HAVE COME THROUGH ME!" she blasted. "The Phoenix Guild is NOT in charge of us! If they had asked us to do anything of the sort, it would have brought down the wrath of our counterparts here!"

"Yes, m'lady," Soltarn said as he saw her pointing towards Katherine, who seemed now to be holding what looked like a club or bat. "I was going to ask you why you were with a goddess."

"TO HEAVEN WITH THE GODDESS!" she shrieked at him. "How about - 'HONEY, WHY WERE YOU THE SUBJECT OF MY LINE OF FIRE?' - or something like that!" She dropped his bent body and surveyed the smoking remains of the Twelfth's artillery brigade. Katherine had made short work of them.

"Way to go, girl!" she complimented her. "So, what do you think? Do we have a rouge Celestial, or a covert operation going on here?"

Katherine spun the club about, changing it into the bow she started out with, then to a staff which she clacked twice on the ground causing it to vanish. "I don't know," she replied. "Seeing how the Phoenix has been acting as of late, I'm beginning to wonder."

Gabrella smiled. "Good to see that you've noticed as well. It seems quite taken by the soul trapped in the Sinner's Rock back in Glie."

Katherine thought about that. "Has it now? I take it you've been there to see this?"

The Demon-Goddess folded her arms as she nodded yes. "Oh, that's right – you can't enter Sinner's Rock like I can."

Katherine shrugged. "With 'Sin' as its name, it kind of explains all, right?"

Gabrella laughed. "Maybe so, but maybe it means you could be checking up on its other loose end."

Katherine pondered what she meant. "How so?" she asked.

Gabrella sauntered up to her and smirked. "I say, while I keep an eye on the Phoenix and its comings and goings in Sinner's Rock, you keep tabs on his flunky Amethyst."

Katherine stood back from her. "Amethyst?" she recoiled. "Why should I do that?"

"Oh, think about it," Gabrella stated. "Personally, I can't be near him."

"Oh, and you think I can either?" Katherine shot back.

"Actually, yes you can," Gabrella pointed out. "There's just something between Celestials and myself – it's like we short each other out when we get close. But there isn't between Celestials and you lot."

Katherine cleared her throat. "Well, that's not – err – completely true…" she said under her breath.

Gabrella watched her reaction for a moment. She then rubbed her hands together. "Oooh, did I maybe touch on something sensitive?" she prodded.

"No!" Katherine peeped. "No, there's nothing like that. It's just, I was warned by my teaching superiors when I was raised to my current level that I should avoid near contact with energy-based beings of Celestial or Supreme level as we tend to… umm… draw on one another."

Gabrella stood back a bit. "Draw? What does 'draw' mean?"

Katherine turned around. "Draw! It means we draw on each other if we get too close." She looked back and saw Gabrella was still expecting more of an explanation. "We TAP into each other's energy reserves."

"Really?" Gabrella asked with a fane of shock. "I always felt repulsed by Celestial energy. Then again, that might explain a few things..." she added with a prod to her Heavenly counterpart.

"I'm told that it can cause a reaction like being drunk," Katherine said. "I was told as an example that Captain Strom himself had a situation when he first became a Supreme where his presence near a Goddess caused her to become infatuated with him."

Gabrella leaned against a broken fireball launcher and thought about that. "I don't think I ever saw Roy drunk," she mused.

"It didn't affect him because of the way he gets his powers," Katherine corrected her. "Granted, it was his first time he had visited up there as the leader of the Denivan, but it still was the goddess who became obsessed. Celestials, Goddesses, even Demons, their powers are within themselves. A member of the Denivan channel their energies from outside, so they aren't affected like... umm... I would be..."

"I always thought I got a tickle whenever I got close to Roy," Gabrella shrugged. "You'll just have to keep a level mind about it if you get too close to Amethyst then."

Katherine sighed. "Agreed then. It is for the best if we both wish to prevent further escalation of this conflict." She looked around at the carnage they had wrought. "If we're finished here though, we should see about the others."

"One last thing," Gabrella said as she reached down to pick up the wreckage of Soltarn by his head. "Honey?" she asked.

"Yes, B-B-Buttercup?" he asked through broken teeth.

"Any idea just who this Celestial was?"

He tried to shake his head no, but since Gabrella had it in her hand by his cranium, it only made his body sway back and forth. "No, he never said his name. But he was human, and he was very powerful… and… something else… he had a hole."

Katherine looked at Gabrella. "A hole?" she asked. "In his body?"

Soltarn swayed again. "No, in his soul."

Gabrella lifted him closer to her face. "What size? Quickly!"

"Quarter-mass," he said. Gabrella looked up and snorted. She then dropped him in a heap.

Katherine watched the writhing pile for a moment. "Is that important?" she asked.

Gabrella shot a small jet of steam out her nose. "Vampires use holes in a soul as a means to control a subject. But only a small hole is required and is usually forcibly created. Any hole that is larger is created by the soul's owner."

"Why would you want a hole in your soul?" Katherine asked in confusion, which brought an irked look from her counterpart.

"You are a newbie, aren't you?" the demon scorned. "It is where a living soul will put things like devotions, loves, hates, and any other sort of emotions. Ever hear the phrase 'A passion growing in your soul'? That's a hole."

Katherine tried to fathom this idea. "But, this Celestial has a hole in his soul that is one quarter it's size? Or has it missing this quarter?"

Gabrella looked down and gave Soltarn a kick. "Hey! Quarter-MASS?" she asked him with inflection.

"Mass, yes… ow…" he replied.

"That means he has a full soul, but has a hole within it that equals one quarter its size. Think of it like oil and water. If you take a cup of water and add a quarter cup of oil, you still see the separation as the oil will float on top." With that she lifted off the ground and started back towards where they left the others.

"But what would make a hole that size in his soul?" Katherine asked as she followed behind.

Kinza looked around himself. The Parism had dropped him into a group of lesser demons, and they were all cowering in fear around the cave they had directed him to.

"I believe I misjudged you idiots," he growled. "You were expecting Hikari and the baby again, weren't you?"

There was only a rustling of gibberish from the walls. He turned and found the way out and started for it. The noise rose and he heard them moving towards the opening as well.

"Okay gang," he announced with the unsheathing of his claws, "as scary as you might want to try to be, I'M SCARIER! DON'T TRY ME!"

The chattering became little peeps. There was the sound of little feet pitter-patting back towards the rear of the cave.

He exited the hole in the ground to the sight of Gabrella standing before him. "Oh, hi there," he said.

"Mr. Kinza, what are you doing here in this cave?" he heard Katherine ask from behind the Demon-Goddess.

"There's a bunch of imps in there that had use of another Parism Gate. They dropped me in there," he explained. "I think they were trying to get Hikari by herself this time, since she would have had to keep her arms around Koni preventing her from grabbing her halo."

Gabrella bent over to look down the opening. "Are they still in there?" she asked.

Before Kinza could answer, she had sent an engulfing fireball bouncing down it to the sounds of shrieking critters.

"Yup, I think they are!" she grinned.

Kinza waved smoke away from his nose. "You know, they may have been able to tell us just who was using these Parisms. You did mention it had to be a higher up than imps."

Gabrella huffed at the cloud she had created. "I know everyone down here who can use one of those things, and I'm beginning to think its not any of them."

Kinza brushed off the cave dust he had acquired. "Oh? Care to elaborate?"

"We found that Soltarn was being given orders by a Celestial," Katherine told him. Kinza glared at her and Gabrella.

"Celestial? What was one of those doing down here? They're rarer than the Captain's group," he grimaced as he rubbed his soar leg. "Anyone we know?"

Gabrella grumbled. "My dear mate was unable to confirm the Bottom's identity," she told him.

Kinza took a step away from the heat emanating from the Demon-Goddess. "Why do I get the feeling that someone will be needing a good medical plan about now?"

"There isn't a bandage big enough right now," she sneered. "Have any ideas where your two ring-heads and that baby are?"

Kinza looked at the rock face that the cave was in. "I'd have to know where I am right now," he told her.

Katherine pointed behind them at the flats. "That was where we left you before."

Kinza scrutinized the area. "That's no good… I need to also know where that bombardment came from."

Gabrella got an evil look in her eyes and smirked. She pointed a finger skywards and sent a bolt of energy away. Kinza watched it arc across the black sky until it landed far in the distance with a sizable explosion.

"Thanks," he said as he drew an imaginary line between the two points and followed it along. "Over there was where we were heading," he stated. He found himself being lifted off the ground by Gabrella as they headed for where he pointed.

"I see footprints in the dust down there," Katherine stated as they swooped down along the directed approach to the rocky terrain just past the flats.

"What are those?" Kinza asked as they neared their landing site.

Gabrella rolled her eyes. "Lucifer's horns… those two," she grumbled as the two Minotaurs below them smashed their heads together, sending the slightly smaller of the two flying back into a stone edifice.

"You know them?" Kinza asked. He looked up and saw Gabrella's form changing shape. "Oh, bully," he said as he saw the new bovine face grinning at him.

"Yo, Larry! Cecil!" she called out as she landed on her now cloven feet.

"Gabrella!" Larry roared. "Long time, m'lady! Come to update your championship status?"

"Oy!" Cecil called from the wall of stone he was in. "Wot's wit da mangy old cat? An' 'ELLO! 'hoo's da bird wit' ya?"

"Ha! That's just…" Gabrella started until she looked back and found a white Minotaur behind her. "…Katherine?"

"Who's a mangy cat?" Kinza snorted. "Oh, hey, nice look there, Katherine."

"I think I'm in love!" Cecil chirped. "You don't see albinos 'bout these parts!"

Larry smacked him up the side of his head. "She's not an albino, horn-fer-brains! Albinos got pink eyes! She's got blue!"

"And ain't they just loverly?" Cecil cooed. He slipped over to the goddess-in-hiding and moseyed up beside her. "Care to bash 'eads and see who's da dominant one?"

Gabrella pinched his ear and dragged him back to the side of his friend. "I'll show you who's dominant here," she half laughed. "We need to know if you've seen anyone around here."

"Oy? Sure…" Cecil started, but was quashed by Larry.

"What's it to ya Gabby?" he sneered. "Willing to fight me for it?"

She blew some curly locks of hair off her bovine nose. "What 'chu got?" she asked with a smirk.

Larry snickered. "You an' me – one on one. If you win, we tell ya what we know. If I win, you and I mate!"

"WHAT!" Katherine yelped but was hushed by Gabrella holding up her hand. Kinza just shook his head.

"I'm already mated," she snorted.

"Yea, I could hear Soltarn's screams from here," Larry grinned. "Best ears in the underworld! So, what'll it be?"

"This is going to be ugly," Kinza murmured as he stepped back beside Katherine.

"But fun," Gabrella snickered. "You're on big boy! Mr. Kinza, will you give us a countdown?"

He sighed. "Okay… From three… THREE!"

"Oh, you sure be ready for later, m'lady!" Larry chuffed. "I've been practicing for this a long time!"

"TWO!"

"Bring it on, buster! You're bound to break your 0-for sooner or later!" she said while clawing the ground with her hooves.

"ONE! GO!"

Larry was last seen hurtling backwards down the path. He seemed to impact somewhere about a mile or so downrange from them.

"My, that looked like fun!" Katherine exclaimed.

"Not my best," Gabrella noted while cupping her eyes to see where her shot landed. "Hang time was a bit short."

"So what's he 0-for now?" Kinza asked.

Gabrella looked at her fingers. "I can't remember," she giggled. "I lost count at about two-hundred fifty seven."

"Three-'undred thirty five actually," Cecil corrected her. "'e's on a bit of a drought I think. 'ow 'bout you, miss?"

Katherine planted her hands on her hips and smiled. "Domination, ea?" she asked.

"They don't learn quickly, do they?" Kinza asked as Cecil landed a few yards short of Larry much to Katherine's disappointment.

"Nice try for a beginner," Gabrella commented as they approached their lobbing quoits. "So, boys… did you see anyone?"

Larry was still clearing chirping demons from his view. "Two girls and a baby," he gurgled. "They went that way."

"Thank you gentlemen," she told them as she reverted to her Demon-Goddess form and held her hands up to her normal horns in the shape of 'L's.

"A word to the wise, guys," Kinza told them as he strolled by. "You're never going to beat someone who can generate their own deflector shield." He joined up with the two deities at a crest of a hill.

"Oh Lucifer," Gabrella huffed. "There are the ring-heads."

Kinza and Katherine looked down the hill and saw Rakka and Hikari below them slowly running down the path. They were obviously trying hard as their clothes and hair were flaying all over the place from the exertion.

"What in the world," Kinza yelped as he gimped-jogged down to them. He could tell they could see him, as their expressions slowly changed when he stepped in front of them. Gabrella landed beside him and snapped her fingers. The girls suddenly bowled the Tomassamassa over.

"You ran into a speed demon, didn't you?" she asked the two Haibane.

"What?" Hikari asked. "You mean that big-eyed creepy little thing? It grabbed Koni and ran off that way!"

"You mean walked," Gabrella told her. "Speed demons are notoriously slow. They just trap their pursuers in a time bubble and walk away."

"How long ago was that?" Kinza asked.

"Just a minute or so," Rakka said. Gabrella shook her head.

"It's no use asking them," she said. "They wouldn't have a proper sense of time now."

"Well, we did see which way it went," Hikari said as she started down the path. "Come on!"

At a point where the girls had finally lost sight of the imp, the path curved around a rock. As they came to its other side they saw a burning red plane that lead to an extremely wide and rough-looking river. The gate they were heading for was on the opposite shore with a boat landing for it on the near side. The path they were on snaked down and through the fiery wastes to the dock. But where the trail bent towards the river at the bottom of the hill they were standing on, there was a blue glow within the rocks.

"That's not right," Gabrella stated as the lights played over the stones.

"It's not?" Katherine asked.

The demon shook her curly hair. "Blue in Hades? The colors clash. It's like asking hell to freeze over. Come on!"

There was a great deal of commotion as the group approached. A few small big-yellow-eyed imps attempted to stop them but were shooed away with simple gestures made by Gabrella. They squeezed through a hole in the wall of stones. Inside they found an amphitheater sized grotto with a dozen speed demons along the walls. They were all pointing inwards while generating an orb of energy.

"That's one heaven of a time bubble," Gabrella said almost in awe. She waved her hand and shut it off. As the bubble burst, it revealed a small child on a padded table-bed and a faun-like demon in a white lab coat that was wearing glasses and was looking at her in shock. They were standing on a large flat-topped pillar in the center of the room. Around them were strangely out-of-place scientific-looking equipment, which the faun seemed to have been trying to adjust when the field fell.

"Doctor Telos, what a surprise to see YOU here!" she smirked. "Seen any Celestials lately?"

"What? How did you… oh, you meant… umm, no?" he fumbled while still fiddling with the switches to one of the contraptions. "M-Madam Secretary, umm, may I ask what you're doing… h-here?"

"Communicating," she sneered as she floated over the chasm from the grotto's opening to the pillar with Kinza in tow.

"Com… Communicating?" the faun asked as he stepped back.

She nodded with an angry smile. She put the security officer down and placed her face in Telos'. "Communicating; it's my job, after all."

He swallowed. "And… and just what may I ask are you… communicating?"

She landed at point-blank range to his hoofed feet, which made his little goat tail twitch nervously. "Right now, I'm communicating ANGER and RAGE!"

Katherine landed next to the child bearing the two Haibane. They rushed to the little girl's side and stared.

"Is that Koni?" Hikari asked of the sleeping toddler laying in front of them. Kinza was scanning her with his rod and nodded.

"The DNA matches," he said. "But she's got to be nearly a year old by the looks of it."

Rakka took off her singed sweater and wrapped her in it. The child was dirty and a bit worn looking. She scowled at the creature behind them.

"Don't you know the meaning of cleaning anything?" she scolded him.

"What do you mean!" he yelled back, showing more boldness in defense of himself than he did to the Demon-Goddess. "Humanoids are such disgusting creatures! I've spent the last fourteen months cleaning and feeding that thing!" That did not go over well with Kinza.

Telos found himself on the ground in the grasp of the enraged Tomassamassa, who had a set of claws under his chin, and a set of razor-sharp teeth bearing in front of his nose.

"You will explain just WHAT you were doing with my charge, sir!" he snarled at the shaking and quivering demon.

"What are you? What are you? What are you?" Telos squeaked.

"A very angry kitty I would suspect," his superior Gabrella told him. "You'd best come clean with him, AND US, unless you feel the need to loose a few pieces to those sharp things under your chin!"

"Gabrella," Katherine called out. "You might want to see this."

The Goddess was holding her palms over the child and concentrating. She released herself and took Gabrella aside.

"Look at her soul," she whispered into her ear.

Gabrella looked at the child. She stepped over to her and did the same scan as her counterpart had. She lifted her hand and closed her fingers as she considered what she had just felt. She looked over at the two on the ground. Kinza was watching what she was doing with a twitchy claw. The doctor seemed readying himself for some violence on his body.

She stepped over to them and sat down, crossing her legs to get comfortable. Katherine sat beside her in the same way.

"Mr. Kinza," the Demon-Goddess asked, "please let our host up? We need to ask him some questions."

"Can I keep my claws on him?" he asked.

"Please do so," Gabrella told him. The security officer stood up, reached down and hauled the shivering demon off the ground. He forcibly spun him about and sat him down before the two deities and seated himself directly behind him. He placed the back side of his right paw on his shoulder and popped out one claw at a time to drive his point home what it was there for. He then tapped his shirt's pocket with his free paw.

"S.A.M. record this," he told the folded patch communicator there. There was a chirp and he nodded for them to proceed.

Gabrella crossed her arms and looked down on the small creature before her. "So tell me Telos, you're one of our chief scientists... your reputation for developing new ways of using our powers in more tactical ways is renowned. The Imp Cannon was and is still one of my favorite persuaders..."

The Faun scientist showed a brief moment of embarrassed pride. It was extremely short lived.

She leaned over towards him. "So tell me, just why you were attempting to punch holes in this girl's soul?" she asked.

The paw on his shoulder spun over and was now grasping it with the nails. "You were doing what?" Kinza growled.

"These probe devices above us," Katherine pointed out around them, "are spell enhancers. They direct a casting to a more focused spot than just general casting would. To do what you were doing to her without these would require incredible concentration and stamina. I doubt you have that."

"A Celestial wouldn't need these though," Gabrella stated. "They have those capabilities. So why did he have you do it instead?"

The claws closed in slightly, causing Telos to fidget. "He… he didn't ask me to do that! He didn't!" he yelped.

Katherine and Gabrella looked over at the child and then back at him. "Then why were you punching a hole in her soul?" Gabrella demanded.

"I wasn't!" Telos screamed which caused Hikari to jump. "He only wanted me to find out whether this child was able to be like him! He said this equipment would provide his answers!"

"Come now Doctor," Gabrella steamed. "You're smarter than that! You know what these probes are for - what they enhance!"

Kinza leaned forward. "And just what do you mean by like him? You mean he was seeing if Koni could be a Celestial?"

There was a loud crack heard overhead. They all looked up to see a boulder that made up the center of the ceiling beginning to dislodge itself.

"AH!" Telos yelped. They looked at him and found he was now being held to the ground with stone anchors. Rocks were now showering down around them.

"Now that's a unique curse!" Gabrella said of the manacles.

"Rakka, Hikari!" Kinza called out while batting stones away from the defenseless faun. "Get Koni out of here! Head for the gate! Nightwatch should be waiting for you there! GO!"

Hikari gathered up the sleeping child, who was much larger than before and scampered to the edge of the pillar with her. Katherine quickly deposited them by the grotto's entrance then returned to the pillar.

"What about you!" Rakka called back to them.

"Don't worry! We'll be there shortly!" Kinza shouted. "GO!"

The girls had little they could do. They squirmed out and started to run for the river.

"Now then son," Kinza told the Faun, "if you want to get out of this alive, you'll tell us everything."

A large stone slammed into the ground just behind Telos' head. He looked up at the Demon-Goddess, who had erected a small force-field over them to deflect the larger stones.

"Oops!" she smiled. "Better get chatty Doc."

Hikari staggered out of the narrow crevasse with the child and looked back. She could hear the rocks starting to crumble back in the grotto.

"We can't just leave them in there!" she yelled.

Rakka grabbed her shoulder and shook her. "I hate to say it, but yes we can," she told her. "Mr. Kinza gave us a mission - keep Koni safe! We've got to get out of here, Hikari!"

She looked back at her fellow Haibane in surprise. She expected to turn and see a stern look of determination on her, but found a face covered in tears.

"We have to trust him. He'll make it through!" Rakka told her. "Let's go!"

The flats between the rocks and the river were incredibly hot. Rakka and Hikari wheezed and panted their way up the path, avoiding potholes filled with lava or steaming water.

"This is nasty," Hikari kept saying. She made sure Koni was protected, but she was wilting fast from the noxious gasses and scalding air. Rakka finally had to assist her along.

"Look!" she called out to Hikari. "I can see Mr. Nightwatch!"

At this point Hikari could barely see the figure Rakka was mentioning. There was something tall and dark ahead, but it seemed impossibly far away. All she could tell right then was she was not going to make it on her own. The image of Rakka's singed shoes were the passing sight she saw last as she fell, curling to protect her cargo in a last effort of consciousness.

She woke up. The heat was gone. The air was not pure, but it certainly smelled better than it did. And Koni was still there in her arms, lying peacefully on the black fur…

…black fur…

"They are not for you oarsman!" a deep voice said loudly, which made her look up quickly. She was shocked to find the head and mane of a black horse there. A quick look down confirmed to her that she was indeed astride its back. "You may continue on your other appointed task!" she heard the voice command.

"Styx awaits," a robed thing with a long black gnarled staff was telling them. Hikari looked to the left side and then the right in search of the man this creature was speaking to.

"Styx be damned!" the _HORSE_ said. "These people are still alive, and will be leaving with ME!" With that, two wide black wings appeared on either side of them and thrust them skyward on several beats.

Hikari looked over her shoulder. Rakka was draped over her back and seemed out cold. Behind her she could see the rocks they had escaped from. The blue aura was long gone, replaced by flames and smoke. The top of what had been the enclosed cave had fallen in.

"Mr. Kinza!" she quietly called back to no one but herself. She heaved a sob as the horse banked the view away from her.

"Stay close to my back, child," she heard their ride say to her. "The transition from this world to your own is not for your eyes to see."

Hikari wiped her face and did as she was told the best she could. But it was hard for her to not notice a sizable flash of light. The dark and smoky lands that they had been running through had been replaced by daylight, and the sun felt good on her arms. But there were sounds that made no sense to her. There were noises like horns and people below them. She could not resist a look from under her arm. She saw a huge square building that looked like nothing she had ever seen in Glie. It had starkly white edges and huge mirrored windows, which were reflecting an image of a winged horse flying away from it.

A second flash enveloped them. The almost blinding sun had been replaced. Now it was dusk, and a familiar wall greeted her. She sat up and watched the northwestern falls trail behind them as they turned to head south with the cherry red eastern wall to their left and the lights of Glie starting to appear behind them. She watched back at the receding view of where they had been, and at the adventure that they had just lived through.

Hikari broke down crying.

"Tears child?" the horse asked her. "Why are you crying?"

She sniffed as she squeezed Koni. "Mr. Kinza! We lost Mr. Kinza!"

"Really?" the horse asked. "Then who is that ahead of us?"

The horse dipped its head enough for Hikari to see the partly silhouetted forms of Gabrella and Katherine far ahead of them. They both seemed to be carrying something, though the thing the Demon-Goddess was holding onto seemed a less than willing, and dangling with some weight. As they approached Old Home, she dipped low and dropped it in the path.

Telos and his rocky manacles pummeled the ground near the feet of two burley men who were waiting for him.

"I certainly hope The Corporation's jail can hold a demon," she laughed.

"And that's what we did on our class trip," Rakka finished.

Koi stared at the stars that were starting to appear above them. "And you didn't bring home any souvenirs?" he asked them.

"Got a demon scientist," Hikari mumbled.

"Made friends with some Minotaurs," Rakka added.

"I've got a stone in my shoe," Hikari stated.

Ptolemy looked at the data that had been presented to him. "A Celestial with a quarter-mass hole in its soul, trying to put a hole into the baby's as well."

"You don't believe his story either?" Kinza asked. The old man shook his head.

"Its unlikely, not from the description of the equipment you said was there." Ptolemy wiped his glasses and thought about what he had been told. He looked at the small screen that Kinza's scanning rod had plugged into, which was showing the faun's lab. "I mean, look at these probes. These are some precision tools here. He was definitely trying to bore a hole through something. But as Gabrella said, you can't just make a hole in a soul - it has to be created by the soul's owner. And to have one as large as described in this Celestial, that is some extreme dedication." He sat back and looked at the two deities across from him.

"You know, its bad enough we have to have this rivalry between your two sides," he told them, "but we certainly don't need a third party mixing it up and making things worse."

"The trouble is," Katherine pondered, "we know that Celestials work for the Phoenix Guild. But could this one be working on its own?"

"Possibly," Ptolemy said. "They certainly are rare to begin with, especially since the purge."

Katherine looked at him startled. "Purge? What purge?" she asked.

"First purge of the Celestials," Gabrella stated. "During the early days of the Treaty of Set, there was a supposed uprising within the Celestial Guards of the Phoenix Guild. The Phoenix ordered all Celestials that did not swear allegiance to the Guild to be eliminated."

"Supposed? You mean there wasn't one?" Katherine asked.

"There was never any proof, or at least overwhelming proof, that there ever was an uprising," Ptolemy explained. "And it did not stop them from doing a second purge about a hundred years later as the number of Celestials grew again."

Katherine pondered for a moment. "That was a bit brutal, wasn't it?"

"When you're talking a person with physical energies such as a Celestial?" Gabrella asked. "Remember, we're talking a force with powers that nearly rival the Supremes in scope of capabilities. If the Phoenix Guild's actions were based on fact, then they were in full compliance with the Treaty. They could deal with the Celestials any way they'd want."

"And if they weren't?" Katherine added. She shook her head. "It almost sounds more like a culling than a purge. Why else keep the Celestials at all, especially if they keep claiming that they were untrustworthy?"

Ptolemy shrugged. "They have been the Phoenix's personal security ever since the Treaty was ratified. Why they continue to follow their lead, even after being nearly decimated by them over the years is anyone's guess."

Kinza rubbed his nose. "Which is more powerful?" he asked. "A Phoenix or a Celestial?"

Ptolemy patted his belly. "That's a good question. A Celestial could easily kill a Phoenix. You or I could easily kill a Phoenix for that matter. But in any case, they don't STAY dead. A Phoenix will always be reborn. So it's a question of which is more powerful – a person with the strength of the universe running through them, or a bird who is practically immortal?"

Katherine shook her head. "It boggles the mind. So could this be a personal vendetta, or could the Phoenix itself be pulling its strings? And why is there such a huge hole in its soul?"

"That's either one big case of devotion, or…" Kinza started. "…Or what?"

Ptolemy sat back. "A hole is meant for one thing only; to hold something. What that something is, is up for grabs right now."

"And personally, with all this equipment," Gabrella noted as she leaned over and pointed at the gadgets the scanning rod was showing on the screen, "there's no knowing just what our little mad scientist would have been able to do with the baby. She is a null after all, soul wise that is."

Ptolemy thought about it for a moment. "You're saying that a stable hole in a soul is possible without it being created by a devotion?"

She stood tall and laughed to the sky. "Crazy is as demons do!" she bellowed. "If that nut-case Telos was left to his ways, I'm sure he would have found a way. He was willing to actually accelerate both of their life cycles to achieve his goal. I get the feeling he was doing that bit of forced time to allow the hole to be larger using the least amount of energy."

"Larger? Large enough for what?" Kinza asked her. "And what would a Celestial want it for?"

Gabrella tapped her nose. "Assuming it was for the Celestial in the first place."

Kinza blew air in exasperation. He lifted the report that had been dumped on him by one of his doppelgangers and flipped through the last few pages and sighed. "What about these two?" he asked the Ptolemy.

The scientist adjusted his glasses and tossed the second copy back to him. "Rubbish. Both of them!" he suggested.

Kinza took the two files and plunked them together and then tossed them to the ground. The two other Tomassamassas looked at him as if he had gone mad.

"I agree," he stated. "Next time, follow the rules."

The two doubles vanished, as did their documentation.

"Well, if that is that, I'm running out of time and must get back," Ptolemy said as he stood up. "I need an extended bit of time out of the Holy Sites, so you might not see me in here any time soon. At least you've given me something to work on back at base."

Kinza grinned. "Have fun grilling Doctor Telos for us!"

Ptolemy gathered up his bags and hat and bid them farewell. He stopped by the lounging Haibane and kissed the girls on their heads.

"You take care of these two, young man!" he told Koi as he walked out the gate.

"Yes sir," he sighed.

"Look at you!" Nemu exclaimed to the cheery little girl in the bath. "Just look at you! Did they never clean you while you were away?"

"Fwah! I don't think so," Kana said as she gingerly tossed Rakka's former sweater into the trash. "I hope that miser at the thrift shop will give us a deal on replacing these clothes."

"I know," Nemu agreed. "Those two down there will probably be in the baths for a week by the look of them."

Kana looked over at the balcony. "You think it's safe to have them lounging all over Koi like that?" she pondered. "I mean, the way he's been acting lately…"

"If you ask me, that boy could use a good smack up side the head," the housemother said. The two Haibane ladies looked at her for a moment before breaking into laughter.

"How are her wings coming?" Nemu asked her as she started in on some heavy scrubbing of Koni's feet.

"They've certainly filled out well," the housemother said as she began to brush the soapy water through them. "Oh, look at this!" she then called.

Nemu looked around the backside of the sink they were using for a bath. Kana joined them peering over the housemother's shoulder.

"There's no gray," she said. "These wings are now white!"

oOo

_**Play the RPG Sadako's Well on AnimeMangaWorld! – Email for the address**_

_**Join the Renmei – Visit the C2 Community and Discussion Forums of Charcoal Feathers of Glie & Surrounding Territories here on FFN!**_

The Phoenix Guild, Phoenix ©2010-2011 C. Ruester/Brightblade Productions – Used with Permission

Captain Roy Strom, Doctor Abigail McManus, The Observers, The Denivan, Nightwatch, Elb Kinza Farley, Koni. Scanning Rods ©2010-2011 Denivan Media Services – Used With Permission

Gabrella ©2010-2011 The Lugia Project/DMS – Used with Permission

References to Ah! My Goddess! ©2010-2011 Kosuke Fujishima/Kadansha

Characters from Haibane-Renmei ©2010-2011 Yoshitoshi ABe

Haibane-Renmei: CORPORATION ©2010-2011 The Golden Halo Project/DMS

Edit & Remastered 1107.04


	13. Sleepless in Glie

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**2 0 1 1 - R E V I S I O N**

**-O-**

**H A I B A N E - R E N M E I :**

**C O R P O R A T I O N**

Chapter Thirteen

**Sleepless in Glie**

By R. A. Stott

"Hey, are you awake?"

It was the third time that night. After a day in hell he wanted to get a full, if not at least some sleep, as he knew the morning was only going to bring more trouble to deal with.

Of course, technically it was morning. Exactly two hours and forty-five minutes into it.

"You're not helping your cause," Kinza grumbled to the intruder. "In fact, if you weren't me, I'd deck you and chuck you out the balcony window over there. Now get out of here with that report."

The second Kinza sat back on his haunches and snorted. "I don't ever remember being this surly," he huffed.

"December 16th, two years ago," the attempting-to-sleep Kinza growled. "The bachelor party for Lieutenant McKenzie that was being held in the next cabin to mine. I damn near broke through the bulkhead."

His double squatting next to the bed nodded. "Ah yes, I remember now. I ordered his fiancé to his quarters to inspect his com link to the bridge… I wonder if they ever reconciled?"

Kinza in the bed slowly sat up. "When she found that it was her bunk-mate hiding in that mockup of a Scat-Back they had in there? Little Miss Plasma-Torpedo? How they managed to build that thing in that small room, then stuff twenty midshipmen in there still boggles me."

"The fact that they though they could do that in the cabin next to the Security Chief stymies me," the other Kinza remarked as he finally sat on the floor, being tired of squatting so long. "Plus the fact that it was an unauthorized party…"

Bed Kinza whistled and shook his head. "I thought the Captain was going to keel-haul the lot of them." He looked over at the sitting version of himself.

Floor Kinza was waving a single sheet of paper up at him. "See?" he said while rustling the page. "I got it down to regulations."

The one in bed snatched it. "It's about time," he smirked. He started to read it but then looked over at his copy. "What is your relevance?" he asked as he returned to the page.

"Stardate 0712.2421," Floor Kinza stated, drawing a glance from his 0-0 Breakpoint.

"The others were from August," Bed Kinza said with surprise. "You're from December?"

He shrugged. "Read on," he suggested.

* * *

She stared up at the stars above them. Considering how completely worn out from the day's unexpected journey into Hades and back, Rakka suddenly found herself unable to sleep. Her world seemed to have been totally wracked yet again. Living in Glie at first seemed basic and almost withdrawn. Now, in less than a few years, she had been through numerous events and happenings in her life as a Haibane. First there was dealing with her own sins and realizing what they were, and learning to not be afraid of them. Then there was helping Reki with her own torments. But meeting Professor Ptolemy, the release of the angel Bakuu, the demise of Striker Aries, and the arrivals of Sol and the demon Jester seemed to have shaken everything like a rattle with one event happening after the other. She sighed at the thought that she realized that even a crashing spaceship with an alien in it had not fazed her greatly. Could this be becoming commonplace?

She examined the arm that was crossing over her belly and the boy it was attached to.

Koi... He certainly seemed to have brought even more… issues? She could not exactly figure just what she thought about him and his situation. She and Hikari had spent the night snuggled under his arms in the large Adirondack lounge chair in Old Home's courtyard. The late summer sky was brilliant with stars, which reflected off her fellow Haibane's glasses.

She was surprised to see her look over at her as her lens flashed with the refection of the moonlight.

"You're awake too?" Rakka asked.

"I hate sleeping with these on," Hikari stated tapping her rims and making them flicker again.

"You're lucky you didn't break them today," Rakka added, now feeling a bit weary as she rested her head back and remembered the journey they had taken together. "Oh look, someone put a blanket on us."

"Umm, it feels nice," Hikari agreed as she drowsily shifted herself. "Oh, he's still here?" she commented as she looked up at the sleeping boy between them.

"You just noticed?" Rakka lightly laughed. She closed her eyes hoping that her weary head would finally let her return to the comfort of sleep.

Hikari sighed and attempted to do the same. She heard the crunching of stones nearby and looked over at it source. She saw a short silhouette standing there in the dark. It was too tall and bulky for one of the young feathers, and by the sound of its footfalls, it wasn't one of the girls either.

Then two yellow orbs blinked in her direction, glowing in the light of the moon. The sight of Mr. Kinza's eyes at night shocked her momentarily, like when she would see a stray cat in the dark.

But something was off about them as well. They seemed sad for some reason.

"Hey you!" he whispered as he lightly stepped over to the threesome in the chair. "It's good to see you."

As odd as hearing him say something as if he had not seen them in quite a while and not just earlier in the evening, there was a feeling that swept through Hikari then that made her shiver. She quickly reached out from under the blanket to snatch the paw being held out to her.

"You're looking a bit beat," Kinza stated. "This certainly was a wild day."

"You should know it, you were there," Hikari heard Rakka say from the other side of Koi.

"Well, it has been a while ago for me." Rakka raised her head and looked over at the Kinza squatting there. He was in full uniform.

"Oh… you're one of those 'other' Kinzas, aren't you?" she asked.

"Other Kinzas? What?" a confused Hikari questioned. She was too tired. She really did not need all this now.

"Yea, I'm from down the line a bit, time wise," this Kinza admitted. He saw the perplexed look on Hikari's face and smiled. "She'll explain later," he told to her with a peck to her forehead and a gesture to her fellow Haibane. He then gently rubbed her cheek with his free paw. She was surprised at how soft it was though she could just feel the hardness of its pad and the claws it had withdrawn into it. He drew it away as he stood up.

There was something about his face that made her afraid, but for what she was unsure.

"Are… are you okay?" she asked him.

He let go of her hand and stretched, making his back make some disturbing sounds. "Just tired," he told her. "I've got to get going."

"You're leaving?" Hikari asked.

Kinza looked down at her in mid stretch. "No, I'm upstairs right now," he said. This confused Hikari further and made Rakka giggle a bit. If she wasn't so tired, she may have thrown something at him for being this mischievous.

Kinza turned and walked towards the gateway. He stopped momentarily and looked back at the building behind himself. He snorted and returned to heading out. He tapped on his communicator patch as he did making it chirp. He glanced over to his left and saw a figure in the shadows.

"Hey there kiddo," he told the person. "You'll find them in the courtyard."

"There are too many of you here, sir," the bent over figure said bluntly.

He smiled. "I was just leaving," he said and vanished.

Rakka tried once again to get to sleep. But she was also waiting for the questions to start flying from Hikari on what had just occurred. Hopefully, exhaustion would take precedence, and…

"What a wreck you three are," she heard. She looked down at their feet and saw someone standing there. Please, let Hikari be asleep.

"YIEE!" Hikari shrieked rousing Koi and making Rakka wince. So much for a quiet night's slumber…

"Can't we have just a little peace and quiet around here for a little bit?" she heard from above them. She looked up and saw the cat-like face of their Kinza looking down on them. Hikari shrieked again.

"Well that's a fine howdy-do!" he grumbled. He reached over and flipped a switch that turned on the new courtyard lights, much to their eye's distain.

A hunched over and masked person was standing there. It almost looked like someone had taken Washi and squashed him from above.

"Bloodeagle?" Rakka asked the form before them. "Is that you?"

"Ah, so this is the vessel," the defrocked Haibane said ignoring the girls and leering down at the boy between them. She poked him with her staff. "I can see now what Miho sees in you, heh heh heh…" She coughed and looked up at the balcony.

"Where is the baby?" she called up to the Tomassamassa.

"If Plato were here, he'd probably have you thrown out," Kinza replied to her.

"Aren't there Town Watch outside the walls?" Rakka asked.

Bloodeagle glanced behind herself. "Are there? Maybe they were asleep."

"A lovely idea," Koi suggested as he fell back into the chair.

"Not so fast there kiddo," Kinza called down. "Things are afoot, and I mean to do some work, now that I'm awake."

"And are you going to toss me out?" Bloodeagle asked him.

Kinza smiled. "Not on you life! I need you, bright eye! Come on in and I'll see if they have any coffee in this joint!"

Bloodeagle shook her cape. "Uhh… I hope they still have my old brown coffeepot. They were always trying to make me drink their tea."

Kinza vanished back behind the balcony wall for a moment. He then popped back.

"Hey, is my ship still out there?" he asked the three in the chair.

"Last I saw, they had just moved it out of the corn a bit, so it's still under the old tree out there," Koi called back.

"Good," Kinza replied as he disappeared again. "I'm going to need some stuff from it."

* * *

Toki sat in her bed and stared out the small slit window that was in her room at the Temple of the Haibane-Renmei. Her shoulders were aching from the almost forgotten weight of the newly remounted wings on her back, and it was making sleeping a chore to her. She glanced up at her lopsided halo, which was still trying its best to find its roots over her head. The holder she was being forced to wear was also a bother in bed, as the wire that attached the ring to the gauze bandage that wrapped her head pinched her from time to time. Worse, it tangled in her hair when she would try to brush it back out of her face.

Was getting all this back really worth all the problems it was causing?

She laughed at herself. Of course it was – it was a new beginning for both of them. She looked over at her husband, who seemed to be able to sleep through anything, as he snored. He seemed to have found that shoving his pillow under his chin was the answer to most of the pinching, grinding, twisting and weight issues she was having. But he had an unfair advantage – he was a man, and did not have those two sometimes inconvenient _things_ that women have, especially when forced to lie on one's belly, as many Haibane were tend to do when sleeping. She sighed and quietly stepped out of the room to stretch her legs.

"Trouble sleeping?" a deep voice asked her as she meandered down a hallway. She smiled at the Old Communicator.

"With the weight of the world back on my shoulders, I would say yes," she kidded herself. "Having these back is strange."

Washi nodded. "Some miracles bring their own pains, indeed. But I sense that this is not the first time you have been troubled this way lately."

She gave him a wary look. "You're looking into me again, aren't you?" she asked with a smirk. "You are a nosey one, aren't you? Besides, I'm sure that I'm just a bit nervous about these being back. Plus, Chip tends to be a bit loud when he sleeps."

The Communicator grumbled. "Yes… your husband does trouble us as well."

Toki cocked her head in a questioning way. "How so?" she asked.

Washi looked at her directly. "Child, do you not remember? Granted, you and he seemed destined to be together since your arrival so long ago."

She laughed. "Well, he was my first friend then." She smiled at the memory of the small boy who would come to the old house, now abandoned, in the Western Woods near Sadako's Well. They would play for hours around the building that she shared with only one other Haibane. But soon, she was alone, left to her own when the senior had her Day of Flight. Only Chip would ease her loneliness, since for some reason, the Town Watch would never allow her to move to nearby Old Home, or any of the other nests that were around in those days. She arrived as a child and grew to be a teen. All along, Chip was there, in the fun times, the angry worse times… and all the other times, pushing her along, encouraging and assisting, helping her to cope with life's little problems. It was only natural that they would fall in love with one another as they grew older.

But for that sin, she fell and became a scar.

She became a scar…

**SHE** became a scar…

"Why would I forget that?" she asked herself as the smile vanished from her face. She stepped back to the doorway of their room and looked in. Chip was still on his belly, and his wing bobbed as he breathed into his pillow.

"You remember now?" the Communicator asked.

The boy she remembered ran towards her in her mind – the WINGLESS boy.

She grabbed her face and quietly jogged away from the room. She sat on a deep window sill and let out the breath she had held. She looked up at Washi with wet eyes.

"How could I forget something as important as that?" she asked him. "Chip isn't a Haibane. He's a human. It was why we were banished to the Scar's Village… it caused my sin to overwhelm my cocoon dream… I refused my Day of Flight because I didn't want to leave his side."

Washi wrapped his arm around her shoulder to comfort her. "It did allow you to take on a more normal life," he told her. "I have never seen you more at peace once you were allowed to marry him and live the life you two had chosen - Never before had such a union been allowed. Defrocked Haibane have paired up before, but never a human and a Haibane, and certainly not married."

"But, how? How did I forget that Chip was human?" she continued to ask. "And how is it possible for him to have the charcoal wings and bare a ring? Does he realize that he's not a Haibane?"

The old man sighed and released his grip on her shoulder. "We are taking a decidedly delicate approach to both of your memories," he told her. "He still does not remember that he was human just a short while ago. Technically, he still IS a human. So, until he realizes on his own, I ask you to please be careful with what you say to him while in this condition."

"Is there a problem telling him outright?" she asked him. He reached over and placed his hand on her hand.

"A shock of memory that is forced to be recalled when it does not want to be remembered can cause a schism," he told her.

"A schism?"

"He could wind up not knowing which he was," he explained. "And in his current condition, not knowing you're one or the other could be disastrous."

"So how did he get wings?" she asked. "We were told they were from touching the Professor while trying to help the saint escape that demon."

The Communicator seemed to ponder the question a bit, possibly attempting to figure a way to phrase it properly. "Our theory on that is that since my brother was returned to us via a cocoon, he was given the traits of a Haibane briefly. But since his own vessel… his body… was not that of a Haibane, once he became intertwined in the rescue attempt, when you three came in contact with the saint at the same time, he transferred his own Haibane energy to you two. He was, in fact, attempting to give that same energy to the saint, to stop its draining of Rakka's and Koi's own energy. But since it is known that it is impossible to do such a thing, the power was redirected to you two."

"But Chip isn't a Haibane," she pointed out.

"Neither is, nor was Ptolemy," Washi added. "And since this is the case, his energy was probably transferable to him. We will just have to see if it is permanent. If it is, it raises many questions that few will be able to answer. Until then, it was decided to attempt to let you have your memory first, if possible, as you will soon have more to worry about than just loss of memory, or his not fully returning. I'm sure you feel it as well…"

She stared at him for a moment. "What do you mean?" she asked. "You mean because I haven't been able to sleep very well the last few weeks?"

The single eye turned her way. He tapped the side of the mask and looked down.

It made her squirm a bit being viewed in such a way. She fidgeted away, which caused the Communicator to stand up. He cupped his hands together in front of himself and bowed slightly towards her.

"Pardon my intrusion," he told her, sounding a bit embarrassed himself. "It was necessary. But you are roughly four to five weeks in… And recent events have created a problem that we will need to answer… and quickly."

Toki started to get a bit inpatient with this odd chat she was having with the Communicator. "Wait… please explain… I'm four or five weeks into what?" she asked.

The robed man froze momentarily, seemingly caught in mid sentence. He cleared his throat. "Umm… well… you're pregnant," he told her.

* * *

The sun was hated by the three Haibane that morning. It was bright and cheery, which was far from anything that they felt. And what with Kinza and Bloodeagle yammering and chatting all night while belting down strong cups of coffee made the guest room seem a bit steamy to them. The Tomassamassa had dragged them down to the wreck of his craft early on and had them lug some equipment for him, after which, they found themselves wandering into Koi's room, which had a decidedly appreciated window that faced away from the overly bright globe in the sky. When Kinza looked in on them, they had all crashed onto his bed and were fast asleep.

"I think we'll let them be," he told Bloodeagle as they headed to the nursery with his equipment in tow.

It took him a moment to remember that Koni would not be in the bassinet they had kept her in the first night - what with her being toddler sized now. There was an old crib across the room from it that she had been placed in. Beside it sat Doctor McManus.

"My, you're one busy person, aren't you?" Kinza jibed at her. She only glared at him for a moment.

"You didn't bring me any coffee," she stated with a slight yawn. "And your charge here is causing quite a stir."

Kinza shrugged as he set up some devices for scanning and recording. "I'm sure she is. What's the news?"

McManus watched the Scarred Communicator as she began to look over the sleeping child with her mono-eye. "Well, from what I'm hearing, the condition of Koni is drawing the wants from both sides. The attic claims her as a pure soul, while the basement says she was purged while being down there, and rightfully should be theirs. Meanwhile, there are those on both sides that say she is an abomination, and should be forthwith wiped from existence."

"Not MY Koni," Kinza growled.

McManus held up her hands and nodded. "There are always extremists on matters like this. And what with whatever this Telos character was doing to her makes things only worse. You say they were trying to put a hole in her soul?"

Kinza patted Bloodeagle on the shoulder, which made her flinch. "That's why I brought in a specialist! Besides, I'm pretty sure you wanted to see this for yourself as well."

Bloodeagle peered out from behind her mask. "I've only recently been told about vessels and such, so my… diagnostic… opinion may not satisfy you."

McManus sat back in her chair. "Anything would help. With the atmosphere still a bit ionized, our scanners could be a bit skewed still. And your unit was designed to work in this world better than ours."

"Ah, speaking of which," Kinza said as he pulled out his scanning rod and fiddled with it a bit while pointing it at the mask on Bloodeagle's face and tapping on the keyboard of some of the equipment he had assembled around the room. "There… now I'll be able to record anything you see. Give her a peek, would you please?"

McManus pointed to a flat screen she had with her as Bloodeagle began staring at the sleeping form in the bed. Kinza tapped on the rod, which dropped an image of what it was reading onto it. A POV image of Koni appeared.

"White… white wings," Bloodeagle mumbled. "She lacks the conviction of a Haibane."

Kinza stared at the image on the screen. "Conviction or knowledge?" he asked her.

Bloodeagle grunted. "Good point. I can not trace her origins like I can everyone else's."

"That rock you mediate on comes in handy at times," McManus stated as she glared at the image on the screen. "Look at the radius of energy around the wings," she pointed out.

"It's like a beacon," Kinza mumbled. McManus looked at him.

"A beacon? A beacon for what?" she asked the security chief.

He snorted, which caused Koni to stir slightly. "Come one, come all… empty soul here," he said. "And notice that there isn't any sighs of the cranial energy a normal Haibane puts out? I noticed that on our little journey through hell yesterday."

"No halo-mount?" McManus surmised.

Kinza nodded in agreement. "Can you see anything of this hole in her soul?" he asked Bloodeagle.

She bent over the prone child further and tapped the side of the mask. The image on the screen blinked and switched each time until the outline of the toddler seemed to drop into itself.

"What the hell is that?" McManus whispered as she checked over the readings. "It's like a waterfall pouring into her.

"Well, I wasn't expecting a physical hole in her," Kinza sarcastically told her, "but this is close enough. It's a void within her life force. Any ideas what could fit in there?"

The picture suddenly vanished. Kinza and McManus looked over to see Bloodeagle sitting cross-legged on the floor with a piece of white stone in front of her.

"Give me a moment, and I'll tell you," she told them as she took up a lotus position.

* * *

Sol sat up in bed. She looked over at the old plush chair across from her and saw the sprawled form of Jester there. He was making some strange gurgling snoring sounds, but little else. That was not what had woken her.

Someone had shouted. Someone she knew. Someone… back home in Tripoli.

She threw her bed sheets aside and stood up. It suddenly dawned on her then that even though she had a determined feeling running rampant through her, there was little she could do while she was still in Glie. And why there was one in the first place bewildered her.

"INCOMING!"

She dove for the ground. It was like someone had just shouted into her ear.

"Ground on why are ney-ho?" she heard. She looked up and saw Jester yawning and stretching.

"Ney-ho?" she asked.

Jester shook his head, making an audible rattling sound. "Erm, honey… Honey I mean…"

Then something on the floor in front of her snapped. A small chip of tile in the old room broke away. From the hole popped two small leaves.

Sol gasped. Was this what caused her to hear things? Was being so close to a planting this loud to a Haibane? Then she saw a hand reaching down towards it.

"What this?" Jester asked menacingly looking as if he was about to pluck them. She quickly swatted his hand away.

"No!" she squealed. "That's a cocoon forming!"

Jester jumped back, pulling himself fully into the chair. "Cocoon? Here? This here?"

She only nodded to him. Then there was another crack. A few feet away from the first set of leaves appeared another set. Then another. Then another. Another spouted up in the middle of the bed. One popped a cup off the corner table. Two snapped the surface of the dresser.

"Forrest you breading." Jester looked at the corner of his chair and saw the seam split. "Aw, not sleepy warm spot!" Two leaves waved at him.

Sol grabbed his hand and yanked him out, making sure not to harm any of the sprouts as they headed out the doorway. She looked back and saw that Jester's comment was far from inaccurate - there were at least 10, maybe 20 little leaflets now in the room, and the first two were already showing signs of the ball that would make up the cocoon.

"Quite a crop!" Jester said. "Out here none… Oops, maybe yes…"

Sol looked down between her feet. A sprout unfurled itself there.

"Sol!" she heard, now almost afraid to move. She looked to her left. That way was to the old section of Old Home, listed as off limits and due for the next round of renovations. A man wearing a mono-eye mask was there. He was not dressed as the old Communicator, or bound like a Toga. He wore a long dark military-type jacket with a high collar.

"Honey, I hate to be the bearer of bad news," he told them, "but you'll have to return to that room, for the time being at least."

"What is it? What is happening!" she nearly screamed as she watched another sprout pop up next to the last one between her feet.

The man stepped up to them and kneeled down to examine the leaflets. "It's called a Rainfall. It happens in only extreme rare instances, and because of really only one thing. But this one has locked onto you because of your uniqueness to this town."

"Uniqueness? What do you mean, because I'm not from here?"

The one eye looked up at her. "Exactly," he said, and gently pushed her back into the room.

"Hey! Not touch her, you don't!" the demon hiding as a Haibane barked. He suddenly had the one eye looking at him at point-blank range.

"Jester, my lad, I have always told you to be brave," he said to him. "You're taking on a responsibility no other demon, in this universe at least, has done before."

"Me you know?" he babbled as he popped into his original small green demonic form.

"Hey - hey!" the man said in a commanding voice. "None of that here! Remember, you are Sol's protector while she is in Glie."

The young 'Haibane' stood up and snorted. "Me you know!" he again said, though this time with a tone of manliness and a fist-pound to his chest - which quickly deflated as he saw Sol standing inside the room that seemed to be in need of a mowing. "So, do we what do?"

The mono-eyed man held a ring shaped device over the two sprouts that were outside the room. It made a zipping sound, and the tile of flooring surrounding the two shot a small geyser of dust. He then picked up the severed chunk of wood and ceramic and gently placed them in the room with Sol.

"I know of a way to get you out of there, dear," he told the frightened girl, "but I'm going to have to get the permission of the Corporation first. Hang in there."

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a cell phone. He gestured to Jester to be with her while he made his call.

"Due to an emergency, all lines are busy," it said to his ear. He grumbled as he pressed a button on the side of the device which made it chirp.

"S.A.M., system override - Triple A priority one," he told the phone.

"I don't care how you do it, get those dampers on line," the phone yelped as it broke into an existing call.

"Ah, just the man I wanted to talk to."

Ptolemy looked at his receiver for a moment. That was not the technician he had been scolding. "Who is this?" he asked the phone.

"Time will tell," was the reply.

"Crap, it's you," Ptolemy grunted as he pinched his eyes. "You do know we're kind of busy…"

"Exactly why I'm calling," he was told. "This isn't a pleasantry. I'm quite aware of what is going on, both in the outside world, and here in Glie."

Ptolemy stood up. "What are you doing in Glie?" he demanded.

"One - One - Zero - One." The Observer's code made the old scientist almost throw his phone.

"So, what are you in need of?" Ptolemy begrudged.

"Don't get surly on me Claudius," the phone snapped back. "You're having a Rainfall event, and I'm at the scene."

"Yes, yes we know," he barked back. "At this rate, Old Home will be full of landings from one end to the other."

"No, one room will be full of landings," the man retorted. "Check your readings again, and you'll see there is a convergence factor of ninety percent. You won't be able to get a better reading because of the Rainfall event causing interference, but you've got to trust me on this one."

Ptolemy looked over his wife's shoulder to see what the readings were. They confirmed what he was being told.

"Why is that?" he asked his phone. "What's causing this convergence? Is it Sol?"

The man nodded to his cell phone. "I see you understand the nuances then. Her uniqueness to this town is drawing them like a magnet. Right now, she is in her room. Now I can break that link they have on her, but that will cause them to start to scatter. You need to control them, and be ready to divert them. Here, I'll give you a feed. S.A.M., transmit this over Federation/Corporation channel forty-two."

He held the phone up and activated the camera function.

"Oh, my god, it's green in there!" Janice commented. "I can see some cocoons already."

"What if they all form in there?" a tech asked. "Can they do that?"

Ptolemy sat down with a thud. "Oh, they'll form all right. And that many, some will merge, many in the middle will fail, as they won't be able to escape their cocoon. It's just like what happened when this all started."

"Not exactly," the man on the other end of the phone broke in. "The last time, it caused structural damage, but was spread out throughout the building. This time, since it's so concentrated, it will severely damage this building. And from this density, it will do so badly."

The tech looked at the readings and saw the concentration. "Then why not have her move around a bit to spread them out?"

Ptolemy shook his head and pointed at the incoming. "I'll assume our man on the scene already knows what would happen if we tried that - there's just too many inbound. Unfortunately, where Sol was will be the starting point, thus the worst damage will be there. But that can be fixed. Spreading it about will just destroy more of the building. And I'll bet my house that he already has a plan that requires her to stay where she is."

"You trust this guy?" the tech pondered. "Why?"

Ptolemy covered the mouthpiece of the phone. "He's an Observer from the future. Why shouldn't I?" He tapped on Janice's shoulder to get her to work on the problem and not stare at the foliage on the screen. "Set the new targeting to the warehouses at the factory," he told the tech. "Try to give them as wide a gap as possible."

"Understood," he said as he started to adjust the field systems.

"What about those already in the room?" Janice asked. She saw the view wobble a bit as the person who was holding the camera had obviously placed it on the floor outside the doorway. She then saw two feet step over it.

"Okay, I'm about to break the link," the man on the monitor told them. "Let me know when you're ready."

Sol and Jester watched as the man removed a simple small box with a single red button on it from his pocket. He held it out to the girl.

"Take this, but don't press it just yet," he told her.

The little black box trembled in her hands. "What is it?"

The mono-eyed man stood back out of the room. "Just a little electronic hocus-pocus I developed a few years back. Nothing to worry about," he told her as he picked the phone back up. "How's it going on your end?" he asked it.

Ptolemy looked at the tech who nodded to him. He then checked with his wife, who looked at her board and winced. "Is there anyone we can send into there to warn them?" she asked him. She then looked over her shoulder with a scowl. "And not you - I won't authorize it."

"Yes mommy," he said to her in a semi-childish way.

"If you need someone already here, I can have Nightwatch head over there," the phone said.

"It's nice to have some folks in there who don't have any time restraints," the professor grumbled, "even if it goes against every rule in the treaty."

"I've never been a big fan of that particular treaty," the man on the phone replied. "I'll let him know."

A new seedling popped up just behind Jester's foot, making him cling to Sol tighter.

"Her field of deflection is getting tighter," the man stated. "Are you ready?"

Janice threw her hands wide in exasperation at her board. "All targeting systems are set. Let's see what this magician can do."

"Ready," Ptolemy barked at the phone.

The man stood back. "Jester, hold on to her tightly. Sol, press the button."

On Janice's screen, the tracking falls of incoming souls shifted to the new headings they had attempted. Ptolemy nodded.

"Successful transfer," he told the receiver.

The one-eyed man gestured to Sol and Jester to step out of the room. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a Doorknob device and started to adjust it. "Keep holding that button while I get this thing ready," he told her. And DON'T let go of her, son!" he added to the demon clinging to her shoulder.

"What is this thing?" she asked the man, unsure of what had just happened, or just what this box she was holding was doing.

The man reached over with his white-gloved hand and tried to tap her in the shoulder. A spark of energy bounced his hand back and made both under it flinch.

"Short term deflector shield," he explained as he returned to fiddling with the Doorknob device. "The last one I used had an on switch that wouldn't turn off until the battery died. I got an earful from Shadsie about that one*****. This one has a momentary switch instead. It's a little less confining, and saves on power life. There… ready. Now then… the difference between that beastie and this doohickey is that the deflector box repels all energy and signals, while this guy will only block the frequency that is drawing all these New Feathers to you. But, we need to do this quickly, so get ready. On the count of three, I want you to release the button. I'll then put this over your head and I'll turn it on. Okay?"

(***** See _AFTER CHRONICLES: YEAR OF THE CAT_ here on FFN)

Sol shivered as she tried to understand anything this strange man was telling her, so she simply nodded in agreement. He stretched a neck chain that it hung from wide in preparation for his next task.

"Right," he said with an anticipating shuffle of his feet, "one - two - THREE!"

He bounced off the deflector and landed on his back side. His mask nearly fell off, and Sol could now see an eye looking a bit dazed back at her.

"On three, you release the button," he reminded her.

"S-Sorry," she winced and bowed slightly in an apology. He collected himself and reset his mask. He then gathered up the necklace and checked if it was still functional.

"Okay… let's take this from the top." He stood with the necklace stretched out wide again. "One - two - THREE!"

This time, he waited and watched the thumb that was crushing the momentary switch on the box. Again, it failed to move.

He dropped his shoulders and stood upright. "Sol, sweetheart… release the switch," he calmly told her.

She blinked at him. She then felt Jester's hand take her thumb and lift it off the button. She then found the masked man leaping over her head to set the Doorknob device around her neck. He gave it a quick twist and motioned for the demon to step back.

"What are your readings?" he called to his phone.

Janice was furiously attempting to redirect as many of the incoming apogee reports as she could handle. Without their original pulling source, the incoming lines were deflecting across the map of Glie.

"It's like you kicked over a beehive," Ptolemy told him. "But it does look as if we're getting the new arrivals to go to other locations without trouble."

"Says you," Janice harped.

The man drew in a deep breath. He looked at a watch on his wrist and shook his head.

"Good, because it's about to get a whole lot worse."

Ptolemy looked at the map screens of the Earth, and at the location of the mass launchings. "What's happened? What's causing all this?" he asked the man on the phone.

* * *

Gather Damon slammed his gavel on the desk as the two sides in the courtroom screamed and yelled at one another. Across from him sat his future replacement listening to his communicator with a distressed face. Below him were the members of the Corporation as they tried to assess what had just occurred on the planet they were charged to protect. Dante sat back in his chair with tears in his eyes as he tried to ascertain what he had just been told by Sun Tzu's security report. He cleared his throat and looked about. He glared at the bickering deities on his left, then at the howling demons on his right. He picked up a pair of heavy law books that were on his table. He first hurled one to his left and then to his right, striking the face of each side's boxes.

"SHUT UP!" he screamed, which effectively silenced the room. "Do you know what you're doing! Do you know what you've done? DO YOU EVEN CARE!" His outburst had caused everyone to stare at the man who normally would be simply their arbitrator. He looked around the room with an angry glare.

"You do understand," he told them in a harsh raspy tone, "that whenever your two sides disagree, it influences the souls that inhabit the Earth, correct? That disputes, when allowed to fester and degrade into something as simple as shouting matches between your sides can cause the humans to react violently? You DO UNDERSTAND that, RIGHT!"

Gather Damon coughed. "It would please the bench if you were to explain, Mr. Alighieri. What has happened?" he asked. Across from him Captain Strom stood up and tapped his communicator patch.

"At 9:00 AM eastern standard time, a terrorist group drove a van full of fertilizer and oil into the courtyard of an elementary school in suburban Washington DC," he reported as calmly as possible. "A phone call was sent to a local television station stating that this was a revenge attack on the civilized world. The call ended when the truck was detonated, leveling the school and four buildings surrounding it."

* * *

"It's about to get worse," the man on the other end of Ptolemy's phone said. "Much - much worse."

A bell rang on the map board. A positioning crosshair centered on a spot swinging towards Western Europe.

"It's a grade school in Oxfordshire," the tech reported as lines started to lift off the surface of the planet.

"Oh my god, look at them all!" Janice whispered. She stared at the screen as she seemed to mindlessly work the controls of her console.

A large hand fell upon her shoulder. She looked up to see the chairman standing there.

"We can not take the full brunt of this," Plato told her. "Set for War Standards 1." He looked over at her husband. "Tell your friend on the phone thank you, and see if he can do something to alleviate the issues in that room at Old Home."

The man looked into the room and shook his head. "I can move some, but many are already too far along their germination process to shift. Let me get back to you." He slapped his phone shut and reached inside his jacket. He seemed to tap his chest.

"S.A.M. System, priority," he said to no one in particular, which confused Jester and Sol even further.

There was a chime. "This is the S.A.M. System - which S.A.M. do you wish to communicate with?" a mild woman's voice replied.

"S.A.M.-1 please," the man answered.

"Thank you… Please stand by while I route your communication."

Towards the middle of the room, two of the cocoons rapidly seemed to consume one another as they merged. Gray particles splattered across the ceiling.

"S.A.M.-System 1, UNS Forrestal command com," a familiar male voice announced. "Please verify rank and serial number."

The man seemed to stiffen up. "Admiral, number Alpha - Alpha - Beta - Epsilon - One - Tango - Seven - Two - Three - Zero, discreet."

There was a slight moment of silence while two more spheres in the room conjoined in a wisp of gray dust.

"Voice print verified, but I require a retinal scan for verification of higher commands."

The man tapped his mono-eye mask. "I have a scanner unit on right now - scan for linkup and use it."

There was another brief moment of silence. In the room, a gray fog was starting to form from all the cocoons swelling. From behind the mask, Jester and Sol saw a red line run up the man's face.

"Confirmed," the disembodied voice told the man. "How may I server you, Admiral?"

With that, the man moved into the room and looked about. "S.A.M., I need access to Forrestal's transmats. I will assume you are about to tell me that they won't work outside the barrier over Glie, correct?"

"That is correct, sir. The ship would either need to be sitting right on the barrier for a seventy-five percent functionality, or come through the barrier for full function.

The man looked beyond the growing orbs at the far window and saw the daylight and sighed.

"There's not going to be any way to hide this one," he mumbled. "Okay S.A.M., relay the orders under configuration of Observer's Rule One - One - Zero - One and start a slow approach to the barrier. I'll get it opened for you."

"Understood. Commencing now."

The phone came out again. He pressed the side and made it chirp.

"Yes?" Ptolemy said in an almost frantic tone. The map before him was only getting worse. The order that Plato had given was to assist with launches, in direct violation of the treaty. The basement was not going to be pleased.

"I need the barrier over Glie opened."

This was not going to help.

* * *

"Sir, helm control has been taken over by the computer," yelled Tolefson from his seat from the forward section of the starship's bridge.

"DON'T TOUCH ANY CONTROLS," he was told. He looked back towards the command loft above him at the Commander on Deck. Mr. Button, the COD on duty, was reading a monitor in front of himself. He nodded down at the communications officer.

"Marcy, give me the intercraft, please," he told her.

"Open, sir," she replied.

"Attention, this is the bridge," Button said in an authoritative monotone which belied his normally high squeaky voice. "We are under a One - One - Zero - One order. All stations are to be manned, but left unhindered as they will be under computer control. Do not take any notes - do not make any reports until further notice. Do not make any adjustments unless authorized by the bridge. For the time being, allow S.A.M. to run the ship. Only S.A.M. is to be recording at this time. All stations stand by. Bridge out."

"Sir, we are approaching the Glie Barrier," the helm reported.

"Are we now? That's fascinating," the commander said as he sat back in his chair.

Tolefson looked back and forth between his readings and the command loft. "Sir, that's an energy barrier. If we hit that, we'll start to burn up!"

"Relax Lieutenant," he was told. "I think you're about to see something you hadn't expected!"

* * *

"Transmat… you want to use the ship's transmats to move the seedlings?" Ptolemy blankly asked his phone.

"Have you a better solution?" it asked him. "And you'd better make your mind up quickly - I'm sure S.A.M. is probably almost at the outer field as we speak.

An alarm sounded of an approaching sold object to the Glie Barrier. A LARGE solid object!

Ptolemy shook. "Damn you, we've never let anything like that into any of the barriers before! How do you expect us to simply 'drop' it? We'd loose the atmosphere!"

"You don't have to," the man told him. "Simply give S.A.M. the frequency of the barrier. He's on channel nine waiting your signal."

Ptolemy looked at Plato. He simply nodded to do it.

"It's better than loosing Old Home," the director told him.

* * *

Bloodeagle stepped onto the porch of the little house within Sinner's Rock. "Miho!" she called out. "Of all the times to be hiding," she muttered to herself as she looked for the wandering soul.

"Now is the time most of all," she heard behind herself. She found the small sprit girl curled up in a nook beside the porch's doorway.

"Why are you hiding there?" she asked her. "Come on... I need you."

Miho shook her head. She only stared at the river that ran beyond the bridge past the porch. "I can not... Rainfall is coming... Rainfall..."

Bloodeagle reached down to lift her up, but could not grasp her.

"Miho, what is this?" she asked. "Why won't you come with me? I need your assistance identifying a hole in a soul."

"The baby," Miho said as she twisted tighter in her fetal position. "The baby is the key to his future. The baby is everything."

"His future?" Bloodeagle asked as she bent down to listen closer to the girl. "Whose future? Why is there a hole in the baby's soul?"

"Why else would there be a hole?" Miho whispered. "It is to be filled."

The world seemed to become drenched at that moment. Rainfall had indeed come to them. Bloodeagle was forced to withdraw as Miho refused to be dislodged from her hole.

* * *

"Sir," Tolefson called out. "Telemetry coming in for shield frequency modulation. The computer has raised our shields."

"And this is how you breach the barrier without hitting it straight on," Mr. Button smiled. "You merge with it!"

The starship plunged into the barrier. On their monitors, the orange-red space they had been in was wiped away, replaced by blue skies and clouds.

On a bright sunny morning in the center of Glie, a thunderclap was heard almost directly over the clock tower that shook the town and caused a bell to ring with a dull tone. In the newspaper office, Sato, a Haibane pressman from Abandoned Factory, looked out the back door of the print house to see what had made such a noise.

"Oh damn, here we go again!" he cursed as he spun around and darted through the shop to the editor's office. He had made a slight ruckus a while back when he had claimed to have taken a picture of someone's Day of Flight*****, so when he reached in and snagged the old Speed Graphic camera, his boss was not about to let that happen again.

[***** See _THE TOWN OF GLIE RPG_ on _Charcoal Feathers of Glie & Surrounding Territories Forum_ here on FFN.]

"Hang on son," he barked as Sato checked on the photo pack on the back of the camera. "I've got enough troubles with Koi right now, I don't need more. What are you doing with my camera this time?"

"Boss, didn't you hear that boom just now?" Sato asked while adjusting the lens settings and shutter speeds to match the film's grade. He then swapped out the wide angle lens that he found on it for the standard, and redid his settings and shutter setup.

"That was just the bakery blowing out their steamer again, wasn't it?" he asked seeing the expression on the young Haibane's face.

"There's no way anyone's going to say I made this one up!" Sato grumbled. "You'd better come and see this!" He dashed out of the office and back through the press house with the editor close behind him.

"Tell me I'm imagining THAT!" he yelled as he swung the large format camera over his head and aimed the large wire-frame that was attached to the front of it at his target and threw the trigger.

The editor stepped slowly up beside the youth. He looked about at some other people around the town square, all of whom seemed as dazed as he felt. They all had a strange blank stare with their mouths agape as they looked into the sky above them at what seemed to be a building… no, a series of buildings hanging there. On one end was a slightly trapezoidal shaped one, which butted up against a long rectangular one, and ended with a large boxy one. But then a series of lighted plates illuminated the shaded area that was facing them, revealing yet another building seemingly stuck to the bottom of the long rectangle.

"Underbellies have fired," the helmsman reported to Mr. Button. "It looks like we're holding at just under sixteen thousand feet. We're just under the barrier level… check that… I'm reading transient space, sir." He looked up a bit bewildered at the Commander.

"It's a dimensional barrier, Lieutenant, he answered his perplexed look. "We could have entered at nearly any level it wanted to spit us out, and we can now probably travel upwards if needed now without going through it again, but I think we'd get an earful if we did. Mind your station. And remember, no recording any of this."

Tolefson turned back in his seat. "Yes sir," he could only answer.

"Okay," the man in the mask said as he began to scurry about the room with the ring device he had used earlier. "SAM, auto read mode please. Set transmat to remove all seedlings I release with my cutter here."

Affirmative, it replied. "Where should I transmat them to?"

"Get your coordinates from the Corporation reps on the other end of my phone, please," he told it as he sliced the floor around the first few. "Have them ready the old cabin out in the Western Woods again. Tell Ptolemy that he should get his 'brother' to send some of the Toga out there as quickly as possible."

"Understood." With that, the first few seedlings vanished in a shimmer.

"Won't that hurt the young sprouts?" Sol asked. "Uprooting them like that?"

The man shook his head as he sliced some more away from the tiled floor. "They don't actually 'root' themselves," he told them. "It's only about a quarter inch deep at the most… Otherwise, they'd have roots dangling out of the ceilings on the first floor. No, once the cocoon ball starts to form, the seedling pretty much gives way to it."

Sol looked at the ever growing cocoons towards where her bed once sat. "What about those that already have formed?"

"They are pretty much stuck where they landed," the man replied as he pressed on with his work. "Once there is a large fluid mass, they can't be moved, even with transmats."

Sol looked at all the small orbs around. There were at least a dozen or more in that condition just around the doorway. And they were all much too close to one another.

"We've got to find a way to move these others!" she remarked as she bent down and examined a tennis ball-sized one in a small field of golf ball-sized ones. A large hand came down on her hand as she reached for it.

"You know you can't do that," the masked man told her as he quickly returned to his work. "Like I said, once the cocoon has settled and started, it can not be moved, period. To move it will disturb the internal fluids, and the vessel contained within could distort and wither. This is a very fragile point in its existence."

In the rear of the room, three cocoons merged in a small cloud of dust.

"Won't letting them slam into one another like that harm them as well?" she pointed out in a nearly angry tone. She saw the single eye of the stranger look at the gray cloud then at her.

"Actually, no," he said as he returned to slicing the floor. "It can be harmful in some cases, but it seems to work out better than moving them physically."

"Know that do how you?" Jester asked.

The man never stopped, though he did seem to wince attempting to decipher that question's terminology. He kept on slicing.

"I was part of the Observers who witnessed that first series of landings," he told them as he stood up and looked about. "It was called Terminus Event One, and you're witnessing it all over again, right here, right now." He squeezed between two large Cocoons and zipped the floor around another set of leaves. They vanished in a shimmer of light.

He slipped out from between the orbs and dusted himself off. "And that's all I can do here," he told them as he gestured for them to follow him out of the room. They looked a bit bewildered at him as he stepped to the next room and opened the door there.

"Ah… great," they heard him complain and watched as he entered the room. They followed behind.

In the room they found another set of large cocoons abutting the wall facing Sol's dorm. There were a number of scattered leaflets and snowball-sized orbs surrounding them in a semi-circle. Sol looked down the hallway at the door on the other side of her own room and scampered to its door. When she tried to look in, a cloud of gray dust greeted her as the handle smacked an obstruction behind it.

"What is going to happen?" she asked aloud.

The mysterious man looked over her shoulder and shook his head. He gestured down the hallway. "The far end of here - the southeastern end of Old Home, have you seen it from the outside?" he asked her.

Her eyes grew wide. Just the other day, she and Jester had been back there as they were examining their new home. The southeast corner of the old building was a crumbled mess.

"It ruined is," Jester juxtaposed. "Reason old not age?"

The man stood back and looked down the hall. "Not at first. If you looked closely at the wreckage, you'll see it lies splayed away from the foundations. It was burst by the rainfall that was Event One. And now we have it happening again in these three rooms with greater concentration. What is directly below this section?"

Sol looked at her feet and gasped. "Their Young Feather's Nursery!"

"I suggest you find Mr. Kinza as quickly as you can and evacuate the children from here then," the man told them. Sol smacked the floor with her foot in disgust. They could not do anything more than _just_ that. She raised a cloud of dust in the process.

"Fast is he," Jester noted as they looked about and saw the man missing.

"What, you thought I left you just yet?" they heard from Sol's room. They looked in and found him holding up a tape measure. In the brief time they had been away, the cocoons had nearly filled it wall-to-wall.

"You had better hurry," he told them. "This floor won't hold that much liquid weight for very long."

"What is that noise?" Kinza asked as his large round cat ears twitched. Dr. McManus looked at him and shook her head. Bloodeagle woke from her trance and snatched the chunk of rock, clutching it to her chest. The Doctor was about to mention that she did not hear anything, when a discernable groan that a wooden beam under stress would make rattled the room. Dust started to seep from a crack that formed along the edge of the wall and the ceiling.

"That's not good," the security officer barked. "Get her out of here!" McManus gathered up the child and hurried out the door with Bloodeagle close behind. Kinza pulled memory cores out of his equipment and started to follow them, but was bowled over by Jester as he came charging into the room.

"Captain! Officer! Cat-man! Coco-cocoo… ABANDON SHIP!" he bellowed while bouncing up and down on Kinza's belly. Fortunately, in his panic, the demon had shrunk down to his 'normal' green self.

The security officer took the advantage of the demon's long ears to grab him and hold him off himself. "Lad, you'd be best not giving me CPR when I'M STILL BREATHING! Now what is going on!"

"Man - ONE-EYE - Washi like, but not!" Jester babbled. "RAINFALL he said!"

Kinza sat up and looked Jester in the eye. "Rainfall? Are you sure he said Rainfall?" He looked behind the demon and saw Sol standing there out of breath.

"Rainfall, yes", she confirmed.

Kinza quickly stood up and allowed Jester to reform into his 'Haibane' shape. "How bad? Where?" the officer asked Sol.

"My room. It's concentrated between there and the two rooms on either side. He said we have to evacuate the children!"

Kinza tapped his chest patch. "Alert all systems… Construction Foreman to the main entrance! Evacuate Old Home! Evacuate Old Home!" He reached into the kitchen and grabbed a pot and ladle and started whopping it loudly.

"OUT! OUT! OUT! EVERYONE OUT!" he bellowed as he went door-to-door.

"Gracious lord, what are you making such a ruckus about?" the Housemother asked as she stormed out of her apartment.

"We have a Rainfall event happening right now, ma'am," he yelled while continuing to bang the pot. "Everyone has to get out! NOW!"

She was about to complain that he was being foolish when a loud crack was heard, and a room nearby billowed dust out of its door. She found her hand being grabbed and she was dragged forcibly out into the courtyard. When she looked back, Mr. Kinza had released her and was running back into the building with the Foreman of the construction crew close behind. In her hands she found the pot and ladle.

"What is all that noise?" Rakka asked as she groggily sat up. For some reason, the room seemed hazy to her. Also, maybe a little bit brighter.

"HUH!" she heard. She looked over at where she remembered Hikari had been when the three of them had slumped into Koi's room and crashed. She saw her there looking shocked at the ceiling. Why was she looking shocked at the ceiling? She rubbed her eyes and looked up.

Ah... there wasn't a ceiling to look at, just some blue sky and a gray something.

Gray... something...

"Damn!" she heard Koi yelp. "That's the biggest cocoon I've ever seen!"

Rakka shook herself. Dust poured off her head. She was finally awake enough to understand what he had just said. She looked up again at what appeared like the surface of the moon just on the other side of what was left of Koi's far wall.

"Incredible..." was all she could say at the sight. A moment later found the remainder of the wall being shoved at them as the gray orb continued to swell. Creaking of rafters also told them that it wasn't on their floor yet.

"We've got to get out of here!" Koi announced, waking her out of her stupor. They jumped out of his bed just as some of the ceiling fell down. Looking up, they saw that the roof had not been removed, but had been yanked upwards by a snagged beam that was following the rise of the cocoon as it grew. Soon it would reach an angle that would allow it to fall back in on them!

There was a pounding on the door, and it opened only slightly. It was pinned by the awkward angle that its frame had been twisted by the weight that was being exerted against it. They heard someone on the other side yell "Put your foot into it!" This was followed by a loud bang as it lurched a few more inches inwards by a pair of heels slamming its far side. Koi grabbed it and began yanking as hard as he could as the kickers slammed it again. This time Mr. Kinza tumbled in with his follow-through and landed at Hikari's feet.

He looked up at the exposed sky, the teetering ceiling and the massive cocoon that was about to crush that section of Old Home. He saw Hikari reaching down to assist him up. Too slow... much too slow!

He sprung up and grabbed her arm and flung her and Rakka out the door into Koi and the Foreman's arms. He then looked about at the remaining section of what had been the first newly rebuilt room. He saw a gap in the wall under the growing cocoon.

"Get these three out of here," he ordered the Foreman. "I'm going through there into the nursery to make sure everyone's out! GO!"

Before Hikari could call out, Kinza had dove through the hole just as the ceiling had finally slipped free of the side of the cocoon and crushed the bed they had been in.

The dust poured out the doorway into the hall, forcing them to head towards the front entrance. They saw the walls were bowing inwards, and that the nursery's door seemed particularly bent. The window in it had literally popped out of its frame and was leaning against the far wall.

"You weren't looking for us; you were looking for a way in there!" Koi stated which brought a startled look from the girls as they exited the building.

"You got that right, kid," the Foreman told them. "Now I've got to get back in there."

"They're going to need help," Koi said as the Foreman darted back into the vestibule. "Rakka, Hikari, get a head count out here. We have to know who might still be in there. Find Nemu, Kana and BW... Where are the Twins?"

Rakka thought for a moment. "They were supposed to be staying over at the old school teacher's house this week for lessons," she stated. "I'll start over at the posting board to see who's supposed to be here and who isn't. Come on Hikari!"

She stood there staring into the open doorway. "What about Mr. Kinza?" she asked quietly. She found Koi's face right in hers.

"He's a professional," he told her. "He's doing what he's been trained to do. Don't make it harder for him by going back in there, okay?"

She stared at him. She _had_ been thinking of going back in. She stood momentarily then burst in to tears.

Koi stood back unsure what to do now. He looked over at Rakka and handed her over to her as he headed back into the building.

Kinza squeezed along the narrow space left between the collapsed far wall and the remaining main load-bearing one. He waved his scanning rod about as he checked under the beds. The rod made a chirp. He pointed at where it had found something and read its readout. There were two faint life-forms near a bed under the wreckage just where the door would have been if it had not been blocked. He shimmied into the area and found that a dresser was still holding a small section up. There he saw a pair of legs and a familiar dress.

"Nemu!" he called out as he climbed over the beams and joists that were lying across the dresser. When he got down to her, he quickly ran a scan over her and slapped his patch.

"Doc... Doc McManus, do you read me?" he barked to the communicator as he slowly turned her to examine her head. It was then that he found two sets of eyes looking back at him from under her.

"Oh, hey kids!" he whispered as he changed his demeanor and looked at his rod again. He tapped it again and scanned the area. Now it showed three life forms. He gritted his teeth and cursed technology for being flawed at times like this!

"Mr. Cat-Man!" a little girl chirped. "What happened?"

"Is Miss Nemu gonna be all right?" asked the other child, a boy, who started to cry.

"The building had a little crunchy," he told them. "But I'm here to get you out. But first, I have to see how Miss Nemu is. Okay?"

"Nemu jumped on us and made the room fall!" the girl announced almost accusingly. Kinza nearly laughed at that thought but was too busy gingerly looking over Nemu's head wounds the collapse had caused.

"Oh, trust me pun'kin, she didn't make the room fall. She was protecting you." He tapped his patch again. Seeing that the Doctor was not replying to his hail, he switched to "Any station reply... medical emergency, this location."

A beep and a tone pulse greeted him. "This is S.A.M.-System-1. We are currently operating under Observer Rule One - One - Zero - One."

Kinza snorted. "That makes two of us," he commented under his breath.

"Understood," the computer replied. "What is your current situation?"

Kinza waved his scanning rod over the prone Haibane. "I have three souls trapped under a building collapse - two children and one young adult. The young adult has sustained numerous injuries, including a skull fracture, two broken bones in her left forearm and right leg and multiple cuts and wounds, including possible internal injuries."

"Understood," the computer again replied. "Stand by for transmat."

"Transmat?" Kinza asked in surprise. "How can you do that? S.A.M., is the ship inside the barrier shield?"

"One – one – zero - one," S.A.M. answered bluntly. "Number to transmat?"

He sat back on his haunches and laughed at his luck. "S.A.M., scan this area under this cocoon field. We have four to transmat directly to sick bay at this location. If you scan anyone else under this cocoon, no matter their condition, t-mat them up as well. Got that?"

"Understood." The computer was never much for words.

"Okay kids," he said as he bent over and put his paws over their backs, "get ready… We're going for a ride!"

"Where are we going?" the boy asked.

Kinza looked upwards. "If I'm right, to the nearest thing to heaven you'll see for a while... here we go!"

The children gave shrill screams as they felt as if someone was tickling them all over their bodies. When the sensation finally ended, they opened their eyes to a bright room full of tables and people.

"Excuse me, but where am I?"

Kinza looked up from his bent over position at Koi and the Foreman, both of whom had joined them in their move from under the cocoon to the ship's sick bay via the transmat. But what was behind them became priority before explanation.

"Koi, take care of these two!" he barked, trying to keep the children from seeing what he was seeing. "Doctors, over here, NOW!" He scurried across the floor to behind the two confused unexpected passengers to two badly injured Young Feathers who the computer had found and teleported with them. "SAM, stasis lock these two STAT!"

The room became a frantic conflagration of people running about and yelling orders. Koi quickly grabbed the two children who had come up with the adult victim who he could not recognize, and moved them towards what looked like a door. A plaque beside it said 'Waiting Room' which he quickly determined was a better place to be than in the maelstrom that was happening behind them. He was surprised that the door slid aside rather than open normally. He was given another shock when he found someone standing behind it.

"Where are they?" Katherine asked.

"T-they?" Koi asked a bit dumfounded. He gestured behind himself, as if that was the answer she should be looking for. It must have been so, as she thanked him and entered the fray. He shuffled the boy and girl along, finding that they were in a room lined with bench chairs and a closed window that dominated the wall across from the doorway.

"Where are we?" he pondered. As he did, the little boy started to explore the strange, if spartan room they were in now. He found a button on the wall next to the window, and like any little boy would, smacked it with the palm of his hand. The window slid open.

"Look at that!" he chirped. "We're over the wall!"

Koi slowly stepped up to the opening and looked out... then down. They were high over a town. It must have been Glie - he could see the Northern Gate. How had they wound up in such a position to get the opportunity to see such a sight? They could see over the wall! Or could they? All he saw was haze.

They were actually too high. The cloud layer was obscuring the view of anything beyond the wall. He sighed and looked around the room. He finally saw that there was a sign beside the door. It read "U.N.S. FORRESTAL - F2-662 - Welcome Aboard - View Port 57."

"This... is a ship?" he pondered. "This must be HIS ship!" he then exclaimed, when he remembered what Kinza had said about being from a starship. But what was it doing sitting over the town like this?

"Where is Doc McManus?" Kinza barked as he assisted the orderlies in lifting the injured Haibane to the operating table.

"We're trying to get hold of her," a nurse replied as she started a full scan of Nemu's injuries. "Her communicator seems to be faulty."

Kinza growled as he spun a wound healer about in his paw. "Blast the coms! S.A.M., unless you can see that she's busy with something critical, t-mat her here right now - Security Chief's priority!"

"We need order here NOW!" McManus was yelling over the crying Little Feathers, the distraught Housemother, and now a com patch that was not cooperating. She could see Forrestal hanging over the center of town, and cursed the fact that they could be so close, and yet still out of touch. She put Koni down and slapped her com patch again.

"Doctor! Doctor!" she heard coming from the area around the main gate. Rakka was running towards her. "Doctor, Nemu's tag... it says she's still here!"

"Nemu?" the Housemother asked with a stuttered realization. "She was working with the Young Feathers this morning... in the nursery!"

McManus looked back at the wreckage that had once been that section of Old Home. She finally had enough of balky technology. She took her thumb and jammed the nail squarely into the center of the patch.

"System reset! McManus, six three one!" she ordered. There was an audible beep.

"S.A.M.-System com link now established," it replied. "All data prior to reset lost. Rebooting... rebooting... rebooting..."

"Come on, you piece of junk com..." she mumbled. "I've been hearing bits and pieces of something going on in there," she told them.

"BLEEP!" the patch yapped. "Emergency medical event in sick bay… Dr. Abigail McManus is required for transmat immediately. Stand by!"

"Status - what is the emergency?" she asked.

"Critical injured persons - building collapse," it replied. "Two children, one adult."

She looked back at Rakka. She held out her hand.

"I'm going to need you," she said taking her hand. "S.A.M., transmat two directly to sick bay."

"Sick bay is too crowed to safely transmat," it told her. She gritted her teeth.

"Then put us in the waiting room!" she yelled.

"Umm," Rakka tentatively asked. "Are we going somewhere?"

She was answered by the world becoming a swirling mass of lights and spots. Old Home and a large group of shocked expressions vanished, replaced by a buff-tan wall with a carpeted floor.

"Rakka! Doctor!" they heard behind them. Koi stepped up with a strange puzzled look on his face. "How... where... what happened?"

"Rakka!" the children cried as they ran up to her and smothered her legs in hugs and tears. "Rakka, Nemu's hurt!"

The blood drained from her face as the Doctor let go of her hand. She numbly turned and watched her walk through a sliding door in what seemed to her as slow motion. As it opened wide, she could see Kinza at a table with many people - Katherine was there as well. How strange, wasn't that Gabrella coming in from the far end of the room?

Then she saw a familiar skirt draped down the end of the table that had obviously been cut from its wearer. It was covered in red spots.

The door slid shut.

* * *

Hyohko stood on a deck overlooking the vast empty warehouse that was used by the Haibane at Abandoned Factory as an indoor gymnasium. He snorted as he spun the soccer ball he and a bunch of the other boys were going to use for an afternoon's match in his hands.

The old steel door creaked behind him as Midori joined him on the deck. "What the hell…" she gasped as she looked down as well.

"So much for today's game," Hyohko told her while looking over the evenly laid out floor of spheres that were growing before them. "I guess we're going to be gardening instead."

Nightwatch huffed as he slowly stepped through the growing field of orbs. This was only the beginning.

* * *

Ptolemy sat and watched the inrush of the Rainfall. He tapped his phone on the hard surface of the desk in front of himself. "Hey," he said to the receiver.

"Yo," came the reply.

"You said this was going to get worse..."

"Yup."

He leaned back in his chair and looked up at Mabel's new cage. "How? When?"

There was a brief crackle in the line. "Well, you know I can't say just when," came the reply. "But I can say that in the next few hours, the coup de grâce will be when someone sets off a dirty bomb in the heart of Paris."

Ptolemy stared at the wall in amazement. "You know that will happen, yet you'll do nothing to prevent it?"

"I'm an Observer… worse, I'm an Observer from the future," the man said over the phone. "It's my history. And it's not like we haven't check to see what would happen if we did prevent this…"

Ptolemy almost dropped the phone. "You're kidding me – you mean to tell me that you've figured that something good would come out of this?"

"I never said that," was the retort. "It is all a matter of checks and balances. As a matter of fact, this incident could be what prevents something worse. We would be informed by future communications if we were incorrect…"

"As long as there was a future to send such a message back, that is," Ptolemy shot back.

"That's temporal logic for ya," the man said as he crunched along the path away from the cataclysm happening behind him. "Besides, if we were to actually lose contact with our future selves, that alone would tell us that we needed to do something _now_. And just to let you know, there are still variables at work."

Ptolemy sat up. "What variables?" he barked.

He heard a sigh. "You have the choice of sending men to Paris in an attempt to prevent the detonation, pull everyone out you can, or leave history to run its course."

Ptolemy smashed the receiver against the wall.

"Commence the evacuation of our Paris crews," Plato ordered.

* * *

Kinza glanced briefly as the doctors around him feverishly worked on the three most injured from the collapse. Nemu was at least starting to look better with their heavy use of their wound healers on her smashed body. But the two children on the other tables seemed beyond help. Before the stasis field had been raised, he had felt no pulse in either. And as for the patient he was working on, he silently prayed that the damage to her head was not permanent. He drew in a deep beath and concentrated on the limb he was assigned.

There suddenly was a scream behind him from one of the tables. He looked back to find one of the children moving within the stasis field. The child gave a shrill cry of pain that hurt his ears.

"Scragg, how is that possible?" he grimaced as he quickly jumped on the stasis controls and raised them two more notches. The child returned to its non-moving state.

Someone grabbed his arm. He turned to find it was Nemu. She was looking right at him through her injuries.

"DOCTOR!" he barked. McManus rapidly pulled out her hypo and pumped Nemu with sedatives. She settled down and released her grip. Kinza stepped back and looked about at the bodies on the tables.

"Okay doc, explain! How can any of these people be moving this way?" he demanded. He looked over and saw Katherine and Gabrella shaking their heads. The Goddess seemed displeased, while the Demon seemed simply disgusted.

"These vessels are Haibane," Gabrella told him. "They can't be killed this way."

"After all, they have already died," Katherine said with a quiver in her voice. "This body they have here is supposed to be only temporary."

Kinza gaped at them. "You're kidding. You mean to tell me that if they're injured, they have to LIVE with that injury while in the sites!"

Gabrella shrugged and looked at the floor. "You've met Bloodeagle," she said. "She's only 22. But you get what you've seen when you attempt suicide twice by breaking every bone in your body from high heights." She looked up and found Kinza snarling with anger.

"I'll be damned if I'm letting Nemu or these kids look like Quasimodo for the rest of their time here!" he thundered. He slapped his patch-communicator.

"I need the scanning disk library," he told it. "Then ready the transmats. We're doing some reconstructive surgery."

* * *

Bloodeagle panted. The last time she had to run anywhere like she just had, was to avoid some Toga and Town Watch guards who were after her for tossing raw eggs at the wall. What with all the destruction and crying young feathers down at Old Home, she needed to collect herself.

But what was it with that child of the alien? The hole she saw in its soul looked like Miho could easily slip into it.

"She sure could," she heard. "How are you doing Setsu?"

The man with the mono-eye was seated on top of Sinner's Rock. He reached up and removed his mask.

"Thido!" she cried. "Thido! Thido! Thido! Are you a sight for sore eyes!" It took her a moment to think about this situation though.

"Wait a minute… you _HAD_ your Day of Flight… What are you doing here? And what are you doing sitting on _MY_ rock?"

He counted off on his fingers. "One, I didn't really have a Day of Flight, since I wasn't really a Haibane. Second, I need your help, because this Rainfall event it about to get much, much worse. And third, this rock of yours doesn't do a thing for me. Besides, isn't this just a sheet of marble that came off someone's mantle?"

She laughed. "I suppose it is. I needed something made of the same material as the real rock…"

Thido looked at his feet. "…Which is about six feet below us," he finished for her. "I know. I like how Gabrella used a cannon's muzzle as the contact between these two. Though it seems you've broken off the end."

She pulled the severed section out of her robes. "It comes in handy when I need a remote access," she smiled. "So, you were never a Haibane?"

He gave her a wickedly wide grin. "Nope," he replied.

"And, you faked being one because…?"

"Undercover work. I'm an Observer."

"I see…" She slowly started to walk around the clearing. She lowered her mask and peeked at him, which caused her to stop in her tracks. The visor showed her nothing when she looked through it, as if he was not there. But as soon as she raised it, she could definitely see him there. She reached out with her staff and poked him. He certainly was solid enough.

"The mask has circuits that are easily bypassed by our technology," he explained to her puzzled expression.

"Hiding in plain sight – it's certainly a novelty," she commented. "Maybe that was why I liked you so much!"

Thido pointed at her. "Ah, maybe this will help." He pressed something near his belt. The long dark coat vanished. It was replaced by simple used clothing, a satchel of tools, a pair of wings and a halo. The only thing out of place with this version of the man she knew was the fact that he still had a mono-eye mask in his hands. "How's that?"

She snorted as she stepped onto the stone beside him. "Wasn't really a Haibane, ea? Maybe that would explain why you put on so much weight." She poked him in the belly, making him flinch.

"Does the stone look like its sinking?" he asked as they sat down. He then pinched his nose and made a motion that looked like diving.

"Everybody into the pool!" he announced. Bloodeagle watched as the person she knew as Thido dropped into a lotus-seated trance.

"Geeze, is that what I look like when I do this?" She quickly followed him.

As she felt herself fall into the stone, she found herself being stopped at what she felt seemed too soon. She looked at her arm and found someone holding it. She looked back and found a thinner, younger Thido standing there in a white lab jacket. She also found she looked like she had as a Haibane, sans the halo and wings.

Thido bent down and pointed to something ahead of them. "Who is that?" he asked.

She followed his gesture and expected to see Miho and her house near the river and rice fields. But what she found was a bald man doing an odd dance of sorts.

"Phoenix?" she said aloud. "What is that clown doing?"

Thido nodded. "Sorry for holding you like this – while I am, he can't see us… at least as long as we keep our distance…"

She shrugged. "Better you than a member of the town watch. Sheesh, he's a lousy dancer!"

"You can do any better?" Thido pointed out. "By the way… do you see anything wrong with what we're looking at right now?"

"Bad taste?" she suggested, which Thido had to shrug in agreement.

"Actually… you and I are seated on the stone up there, right?"

She looked back at him confused. "What?" she asked.

"Oh come on," he said. "I know you looked at me before coming as well. We are in here mentally only. Physically, we're sitting on the top of that stone up there. But try putting on your mask. See if you can find twinkle-toes up there anywhere."

She slid the mono-eye over her face and looked back to where their bodies were. She searched the trees all around the stone. There was no sign of the bird in the branches. She looked back at the man in front of them and was nearly blinded by his glow. She removed her mask and scowled.

"It's completely in here? Physically in the stone?" she asked Thido.

"Impressive, isn't it?" he said. "I mean, I could probably do the same, but the transmat would just make me a gooey mess by doing that."

Bloodeagle shook her head. "I don't get it. And where is Miho?"

Thido pointed over to something way off in the distance that Bloodeagle could not discern. "What is that?" she asked.

"That would be our little soul from in here," Thido told her as he handed her a small set of binoculars he had pulled from the lab coat's pocket. She saw an old-style glass milk bottle there. "Miho is a threat to him, so he put her on hold while he's in here."

She gritted her teeth at the thought of Miho being stuck in the bottle. "So what's it doing in here?"

"Hiding, I suspect," Thido told her. "Ah, let's get out of here for a moment."

She saw that Thido was looking back up from where they were seated above. There was a flash of light and she found herself in her body again. Thido grabbed her hand and motioned her to follow him quietly. He led them behind a derelict machine at the edge of the junk yard.

"What are we…" she started, but he hushed her and pointed over to the opening to the stone's clearing. A man was standing there.

"Who is that?" she whispered.

"Shhh… watch," Thido said.

The stone began to shine brightly. A fiery bird sprouted from it and lighted on a branch briefly. It then launched itself, looping once in mid air as it dove at and _into_ the midsection of the man.

"DAMN!" she whispered to herself. "What did it just do?"

Thido laughed slightly. "It just answered your question."

"My question?" she asked.

"Of course… what do you do with a hole in your soul?" he told her. "You carry something valuable. And I certainly hope you were taking notes."

She shook her head. "Why should I be…" she started, but found that Thido's last comment was not direct towards herself, but to a slick-dressed individual who was hiding behind another machine next to theirs.

"Amethyst?" she asked.

oOo

**Author's Note:** As of THIS chapter, the story will continue on its restructured, remastered course. As noted in the new intro to Chapter One, the story required a rebuild, as locations I had been using in my stories did not match to described realities, as presented on the map of Guri/Glie from The Haibane Lifestyle Diary. From this point on, they will. And of course, the earlier stories have been revamped to get it straight finally. What fun! Mind you, for those interested in the ORIGINAL versions of those chapters, they will remain posted on my off-FFN sites, such as TRHQ2 and AnimeMangaWorld! over on the Yuku Forum Boards. These places can be found via good old Giggle… I mean Google…

MEANWHILE, in this story, I gave one of my characters a tweak. For anyone familiar with the RPG _Sadako's Well_ running over on my AnimeMangaWorld! forum-board (and who would? No one other than Shadsie and myself ever have posted anything on it – grumble grumble…) where I introduced the characters of Toki and Chip, would know that Toki was originally a young Haibane, and Chip was her secret Scar boyfriend. She was young enough not to have to work daily, so they would play in the Sinner's Junkyard – an early version of what became the junkyard and Sinner's Rock in these stories. But, as I was going over the rebuild, rereading the plots and reworking the twists and turns, I realized I never had actually said that Chip was a Scar in THIS story – only that Toki had been one (keeping her Haibane name after going to the Village is noted in _Jester_). So in these stories, Chip will be a local human farm boy who grew up with Toki, a Haibane girl who was born roughly the same age as he was at the time (roughly 9 or 10). Being the last Haibane deposited at the old cabin in the Western Woods near Sadako's Well, remaking Chip into a human works, since, as in the original version of these stories, the RPG has the same issues with locations, and they reared their ugly heads. The whole plot was originally placed in the northeast section of Glie, which, as it turns out, would have plunked it slap dab in the area that the map shows to be part of the main town, to the right of the northern gate. And since the Scar's Village now resides in the northwest, near the Temple, with the junkyard nearby that, making Scar Chip skirt the breath of Glie to play with his southwestern girlfriend made no sense. So, now he becomes the child of the Southern Farmer, who would shirk his duties to play with his feathered girlfriend. Not only does that fit the plot better, it allows for more input on characters like said farmer, who has only made brief cameos so far.

Humm… all this sounds like we need another side-story - Maybe someday - Or maybe someone just MIGHT actually play the RPG… grumble…

- R. A. Stott - ArkNorth – July 2011

_**Play the RPG Sadako's Well on AnimeMangaWorld! – P L E A S E ! ! – eMail or Google for the address**_

_**Join the Renmei – Visit the C2 Community and Discussion Forums of Charcoal Feathers of Glie & Surrounding Territories here on FFN!**_

Captain Roy Strom, Doctor Abigail McManus, The Observers, Nightwatch, Gather Damon, Elb Kinza Farley, Koni, Scanning Rods, GENUINE Doorknobs, U.N.S. FORRESTAL, S.A.M. & S.A.M.-System ©2011 Denivan Media Services – Used With Permission

"After Chronicles – YEAR OF THE CAT" ©2011 The Lugia Project II/Denivan Media Services – Used with Permission

Lady Bloodeagle, Shadsie (Shadowcat) ©2011 S. E. Nordwall – Used with Permission

Gabrella ©2011 The Lugia Project/DMS – Used with Permission

Characters from Haibane-Renmei ©2011 Yoshitoshi ABe

Haibane-Renmei: CORPORATION ©2011 The Golden Halo Project/DMS


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